2017 Season
Finalists at FIRSt Houston ChampionshipsFor the fifth consecutive year, Citrus Circuits made it to the Einstein field at Champs after again winning the Newton subdivision and finishing the season on the Finalist alliance at the first-ever Houston Championships.
After a rough first day at Champs, which included losing two matches by one point each, we piled up enough wins on the second day to seed third in the Newton Division, where we recycled our 2015 championship alliance with our friends Team 118 Robonauts. Rounding out the alliance were 4188 Columbus Space Program from Georgia and local Houston team 5892 Energy HEROs. With this powerful alliance, we made our way to the Newton Finals, setting a world high score of 555 along the way, before winning the final two elimination matches over the number two alliance led by 330 Beachbots.. |
Along with the other subdivision finalists, we moved our robot and pits to Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros, for the Championship finals on Einstein. The matches between the six finalists were played in a round robin format, where each alliance played every other alliance and the two highest seeded teams advanced to the finals. We placed first in the round robin with a record of 4-1, heading to the Einstein finals to play the second seeded alliance representing the Roebling field, led by the Greybots Team 973. The Greybots outshot and outscored our alliance in the finals, taking the championship in two matches. It was an exciting finale to a great season, and we left Houston with not only medals and trophies, but some memories to last a lifetime.
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Stunning Win In Las VegasWe won our third competition of the season at the Las Vegas Regional, held at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, from April 6 to 8. In Vegas, we faced the toughest competition yet, encountering some of the best teams from Nevada, California, Arizona, Texas, and Colorado. The event also featured international teams from Turkey, China, and Germany.
During the elimination matches, our alliance achieved the highest score of the competition with 516 points. Additionally, we won the Innovation in Controls Award, sponsored by Rockwell Automation, which celebrates an innovative control system or application of control components – electrical, mechanical, or software – to provide unique machine functions. This is the second time the team has been recognized for our accomplishments in programming and controls, winning the the same award at the local Sacramento Regional two weeks ago.
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We seeded second among the 47 teams at the competition during qualification matches, allowing us to choose our alliance partners for the playoffs: the 1538 Holy Cows from San Diego and 2637 Phantom Catz from Rolling Hills Estates. We led the alliance through the elimination matches and into an intense best-of-three finals, where we clashed with an alliance led by two of the best teams from Texas: 118 Robonauts from League City and 148 Robowranglers from Greenville. Citrus Circuits had competed on alliances with both teams at previous World Championships, winning the 2015 World Championship with the Robonauts. After a loss and a win, we played a tiebreaker match that was replayed due to a field fault, resulting in victory in the final match of the competition.
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Additionally, we are extremely proud of our robot programming sub-team, who received the Innovation in Control Award, sponsored by Rockwell Automations. This award celebrates an originally designed control system or application of control components to provide unique machine functions. Also, Maya Brandy, a very influential member of our team as well as our current pilot, became a FIRST Dean’s List Finalist. This qualifies her to be considered for the Dean’s List Award, given at World Championships to the member who best demonstrates passion for and effectiveness at attaining FIRST ideals.
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Sacramento Regional VictoryLast weekend, we competed in the annual Sacramento Regional, hosted by UC Davis. 56 teams from not only California, but Nevada and Hawaii as well, played against one another for the title of Regional Champion. After 15 hard-fought qualification and elimination matches, we are excited to say that we have retained our four-year Sacramento Regional winning streak. Along with 973 Greybots from Atascadero and 2543 Titanbots from Chula Vista, we won our second regional of the 2017 season!
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Successful at Central Valley RegionalWe started our season off with a bang after winning our first regional competition at the Central Valley Regional in Madera, CA, from March 10-12 . We were ranked second going into the finals, where we partnered up with teams 1323 Madtown Robotics, from Madera, CA, and 2135 Presentation Invasion, from San Jose, CA, to win the competition without losing a single playoff match. Because we won the Central Valley Regional, we will compete at the 2017 FIRST Championship in Houston, TX, with 600 other teams from around the world.
We also were awarded the Quality Award Sponsored by Motorola Solutions Foundation, which celebrates machine robustness in concept and fabrication. We have won a non-competition award at every regional we have attended since 2014. |