2017 offseason

2017 Offseason

MadTown Throwdown

On November 9-11, we competed in our final 2017 Steamworks game at Madtown Throwdown. This competition also included 23 other teams, and was hosted at Madera High School, by 1323 Madtown Robotics.

This competition stood out from normal competitions, where we only use one robot. In MTTD, we used our main robot, 1678, as well as our offseason robot 8678, and 9678, our practice robot. With three robots, we needed multiple drive teams. Our main drive team drove our main robot, while the other two robots were driven by four rotating drive teams. Roland Caulkins, a new member of one of our rotating drive teams says the experience was “really fun, yet really stressful, but overall, it was a great opportunity”

After qualifications, our main robot was ranked fourth and we formed an alliance with 2073 EagleForce from Elk Grove, 2173 Presentation Invasion from San Jose, and 5104 Breaker Bots from Pacific Grove. The alliance was able to work their way through the QuarterFinals before losing in the SemiFinals to our friends 5940 B.R.E.A.D., 971 Spartan Robotics, 3482 Arrowbotics, and 3303 Metallic Thunder.

Capital City Classic

On October 28-29, our team helped host the Capital City Classic off-season competition at Pleasant View High School in Elk Grove with 2073 Eagle Force and 3859 Wolf Pack. Team 701 RoboVikes made this year's trophies, featuring the Capitol dome, for the winning alliances and other award winners.

We were ranked second after qualifications matches and was able to team with the number one team, 1323 MadTown Robotics, as well as Houston Champs winners 973 Greybots, and Team 255 Tech Fire. The alliance survived an exciting series of elimination matches before prevailing in the finals over an alliance consisting of two robots from 2122, Team Tators and the Tator Tots, and 1671 Buchanan Bird Brains.

The event also featured a series of workshops with presenters from many of the state's top teams. The workshops were designed to share ideas and strategies about student leadership, strategic design, managing a budget, public relations, and more. The workshop slide presentations and videos will be posted on our website soon.

Chezy Champs

We recently participated in our first competition of the offseason in San Jose, CA. Competing with 40 teams from across the west coast in the 2017 FRC STEAMWORKS game, we reached the quarterfinals before being knocked out by the alliance headed by reigning world champions and hosts, the Cheesy Poofs. Along with competing in the quarterfinals, we also won the Professionalism Award. Steve Harvey said: “We’re very honored to receive the Professionalism Award, I think it’s a great award to win. It’s given to the team that helps other teams both on and off the field. We’re proud to be that team, and to have won for the second time.”

We competed in two days of qualification matches and were seeded as the eighth ranked team. For the elimination matches, we formed an alliance with the Millennium Falcons from San Diego, Code Orange from Irvine, and Wolfpack Robotics from Elk Grove. The alliance was defeated in the quarterfinals after two tough matches against the Cheesy Poofs, but not before achieving one of the highest scores of the competition in the first elimination match.

The competition also signaled some changes for the team: freshman Livy Taylor and senior Kyle Stachowicz took over as the new driver and operator. This was their first competition in their new positions, driving and operating the robot that reached the finals of the world championship in Houston this past April.

In the next month, our team has two upcoming competitions. The first, Capital City Classic, will be in Elk Grove, hosted by Citrus Circuits with teams EagleForce and Wolfpack Robotics from Elk Grove. The teams will also present workshops on a variety of topics for both rookie and veteran teams. After that will be Madtown Throwdown, held in Madera.