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(left to right) Tell Bagley, Luke Schulte and Tanner Birkenfeld, members of Team 16617, Nazareth Robotics, adjust the axle on their robot. Photo by Chloe Birkenfeld. -
Luke Schulte of Team 16617m Nazareth Robotics, prepares a robot for competition. Photo by Chloe Birkenfeld.
Despite a delayed start to the season and plenty of changes due to a certain virus, Nazareth Robotics is back in the thick of the action.
Nazareth Robotics just completed the First Tech Challenge North League Meet #2 with solid wins and rankings.
In North League Meet #1, Nazareth team 18570 - Swift PowerMech - placed third, and Naz team 16617 - Nazareth Robotics - placed 5th. In League Meet #2, 16617 placed 1st and 18570 placed 5th.
The overall ranking uses a team's top 10 scores. Out of 20 active teams, Naz team 16617 is currently ranked 2nd in the League, and 18570 is ranked 5th.
“This robotics season has been challenging in new ways,” said Robert O’Connor, Nazareth principal and robotics mentor. “The biggest change is that the North League (district) has not been allowed to convene for any live events and must be played remotely.
“We just finished up League Meet #2 for robotics. Here in Nazareth, we have been experimenting with live streaming our matches. This is like what our school has done in basketball. We are currently working with our League, Texas Tech University, and FIRST to coordinate multiple teams to compete at the same time, while sharing live feeds. We hope to coordinate this across our league if FIRST will allow it.”
O’Connor explained that this year's game involves picking up and launching rings into goals, knocking down targets, and dropping wobble goals outside the arena. The League has adopted a "remote" format and teams play from their schools, without officials.
Additionally, teams are no longer paired on alliances and Meet ranking is determined based on the individual merit of six matches in each League Meet. Teams are given a weeklong window to play and upload their match scores for.
O’Connor said the central tenet of FIRST Robotics is something called "Gracious Professionalism."
“We are all expected to be people of honesty and integrity,” O’Connor said. “FIRST does not require teams to video matches or share a livestream because not all teams across the United States have access to the same technologies. As a result, this season has become a test of ethics and integrity.
O'Connor told his teams, "We will play this season honestly. Win or lose, we will do the best we can with what we have."
O’Connor said Nazareth Teams 16617 and 18570 have run 12 matches (Meets 1 and 2) live on the Nazareth ISD YouTube channel.
“We record from multiple cameras at once and broadcast a single feed,” O’Connor explained. “Our meets start with a robot inspection and then we compete. Student Tagan Ramsey runs the broadcast and we have had Tanner Wethington, Allie Sanders and Chloe Birkenfeld commentating matches.
“While a live stream allows other teams to see some of our inner workings and strategy, it also is a way we can show a fair degree of transparency.”
Nazareth Robotics hopes to have a repeat performance from last year when their rookie team qualified for state and was selected to attend the World competition. They were unable to compete due to COVID-19 shutdowns in competitions and meets.
A link to FTC results: https://ftc-events.firstinspires.org/2020/USTXNLM2