A Brief Summary

As part of an eventful week, we attend the 2022 FIRST World Championship in Houston, Texas from April 20th to April 23rd. After qualification matches in the Galileo Division we accepted an invitation to play in the playoff rounds alongside the #1 seed Team 1619 Up-A-Creek Robotics, along with Team 3175 Knight Vision, and Team 6672 Fusion Corps. Our alliance was able to win the Galileo Division and advance to the Einstein field to face the other five division winners, where we ultimately won our fifth World Championship!

Team 254 poses for a picture after winning at the 2022 FIRST Championship

Robot Performance

Qualification Matches (Galileo Division)

Throughout our qualification matches, we wanted to make sure that we secured four ranking points during each match. In order to do this, we tried to win the match, shoot at least 20 balls in the upper hub, and have an alliance partner climb with us. Through the efforts of our drive team and pit crew, our robot performed admirably each match. We achieved a 8-1-1 record, and a ranking point average of 3.60, with a rank of 4th out of 76.

Sideways hangs with other alliance partners at the end of a qualification match

Alliance Selection

Going into the playoff tournament in the Galileo Division, Team 1619 Up-A-Creek Robotics, the #1 seed, invited us to their alliance, along with FRC Team 3175 Knight Vision and FRC Team 6672 Fusion Corps.

Playoff Matches (Galileo Division)

From a strategic perspective, our alliance wanted the ability for all three robots to contribute offensively and defensively. We also wanted to have a triple traversal climb, to give our alliance more strategic flexibility and higher points ceiling. We were very lucky to be with three amazing teams that complemented each other perfectly.

On the Einstein Field

Our alliance modified our strategy during the Einstein matches, with Team 6672 playing more of a defensive role against the opposing alliance. Each of our three robots also attempted to climb to the traversal rung during the endgame, knowing that the first tiebreaker after wins was average Hangar points. Our performance allowed us to move on to the finals, facing the Turing Division winners. In the finals, our alliance won the first match by a single point and then lost the second match. In the tiebreaker match, our alliance's strategists opted to swap out Team 6672 for Team 3175 to attempt a different defensive strategy that would allow us to control two opponent balls to help starve our opponents, and changed our offensive approach to try and avoid the very effective defense played by Team 4099 against us in the previous matches. Thanks to this new strategy and to our autonomous mode working better than previously, we were able to win the finals tiebreaker. We would like to shout out Team 1577 Steampunk, Team 4414 HighTide, Team 2539 Krypton Cougars, and Team 4099 The Falcons, for having an amazing alliance. Our alliance was very fortunate to emerge victorious after three incredibly tough and competitive matches.

A Special Thanks

At the 2022 FIRST World Championship in Houston, we would not have been able to be so successful without the amazing teams that we were able to work with during our matches. Also a special shout out to our pit crew and drive team for properly maintaining our robot during the tournament. We would also like to highlight the efforts of our alliance readiness crew to keep our alliance partners ready throughout the tournament. Team 254 would also like to thank all the volunteers and judges that made this tournament an exciting experience, and all of our mentors, teachers, and parents who supported us and helped us succeed.

Members of the Team 254, 1619, 6672, and 3175 wait for their next match on the Einstein Field

Our drive team poses for a picture on the Einstein Field after the last match

A Brief Summary

As part of an eventful weekend we attended the 2022 Silicon Valley Regional in San Jose, CA. We had a great time at our second tournament of the FIRST Rapid React Season with our robot, Sideways. Alongside FRC Team 1678 Citrus Circuits and FRC Team 7419 QLS Tech Support, we were able to win the tournament, along with taking home the Quality Award!

Team 254 and alliance partners Team 1678 and Team 7419 pose for a picture with Sideways after winning at the 2022 Silicon Valley Regional

Robot Performance

Qualification Matches

In the qualification matches, we executed a strategy to earn all four ranking points by winning the match, scoring at least 20 balls in the upper hub, and climbing to the traversal rung. Through the tireless efforts of both our alliance partners and our own team members, we achieved a 9-0-0 record, and a perfect ranking point average of 4.00!

Sideways hangs, with an alliance partner, at the end of a qualification match

Alliance Selection

Team 254 representative, Nikhil Gangaram, stands with Team 1678 and Team 7419 as they agree to join our alliance

Going into the playoff tournament, we were excited to be able to form an alliance with FRC Team 1678 Citrus Circuits and FRC Team 7419 QLS Tech Support.

Playoff Matches

During the playoffs, we employed a strategy that involved our robot and Team 1678’s robot to be on opposite sides of the field, so we didn’t cross paths and bump into each other. This strategy maximized our total cargo collected and shot. We knew that balls would get stuck behind the hub, so Team 7419 swept the backside of the field while playing defense on the opposing alliance’s robots. Just before the endgame started, Team 7419 started to climb, in an attempt to get all three robots on the traversal rung.

Team 254, and alliance partners Team 1678 and Team 7419, hang on the Traversal Rung at the end of a playoff match

A Special Thanks

At the Silicon Valley Regional, we would not have been able to be so successful without the amazing teams that we were able to work with during our qualification and playoff matches. Also a special thanks for our pit crew and drive team for properly maintaining our robot during the tournament. A big thank you to the Chairman’s Award team for presenting our submission in front of a panel of FIRST Judges. Team 254 would also like to thank all the volunteers and judges that made this tournament an exciting experience, and all of our mentors, who helped us succeed in this regional.

Members of Team 254 Pit Crew repair Sideways before an upcoming playoff match

Drive team members of Team 254, 1678 and 7419 strategize before an upcoming playoff match

Team 254 President, Nikhil Gangaram, and mentor, Joey Diamond, assist a team before an upcoming match

A Brief Summary
As part of an eventful weekend, we attend the Sacramento Regional in Davis, CA! We had a great time at our first season tournament after two long years. Alongside FRC Team 1678 Citrus Circuits, Team 5458 Digital Minds, we were able to win the tournament!
Robot Performance
Qualification Matches
Through our qualification matches, Sideways performed very well. Despite bearing one loss, going 10-1 overall, we were able to score an average of about 118 points with our alliance partners per match. According to our scouts, we scored an average of 79.5 points, in most of our qualification matches. We sought to earn the maximum number of ranking points, which meant getting an alliance partner to climb, and shooting at least 20 balls into the upper hub, which would get us to 2 RP. To get the final two ranking points, we had to win the match. Through this strategy, we set a world record of 177 points in our first match. At the end, we were the first seeded alliance heading into elimination matches.
Alliance Selection
Going into the elimination period, we chose to form an alliance with FRC Team 1678 Citrus Circuits, and FRC Team 5458 Digital Minds.
Elimination Matches
For elimination matches, we aimed to focus on shooting cargo and climbing as much as possible, hoping to get 20+ balls in the upper hub, and to have at least two robots on the traversal rung. Alongside our alliance partners, we were able to execute this plan well, even breaking our own world record with 180 points in a semifinals match. Our streak continued as we went on to win our finals matches against Team 973, 7157, and 5274, winning the tournament.
A Special Thanks
Also, a special shoutout to our pit crew and drive team for properly maintaining our robot, and our alliance readiness crew, who supported other teams throughout the tournament. Team 254 would also like to thank all the volunteers and judges that made this tournament possible, and all of our mentors, teachers and parents who supported us and helped us succeed!

Check out our very own Sumi Govindaraju, Daniel George, and Andrew Torrance on First Updates Now's latest edition of FRC Deep Dive below. If you have any further questions or comments please direct them towards the Chief Delphi thread for this episode.

Team 254 is proud to present the Technical Binder and Code Release for our 2019 Einstein finalist robot, Backlash. If you have any questions, feel free to comment on the respective Chief Delphi threads for our code release and our technical binder release.

Team 254 is proud to present the Technical Binder, Code Release, and Blog Release for our 2018 World Champion winning robot, Lockdown. If you have any questions, feel free to comment on the Chief Delphi thread for our code release and our technical binder release.

Team 254 is proud to present the Technical Binder, Code Release, and Blog Release for our 2017 World Champion winning robot, Misfire. If you have any questions, feel free to comment on the Chief Delphi thread for our code release and our technical binder release.

Overview

This past weekend, from Tuesday until Saturday, we participated in the FIRST Robotics Competition World Championships in Saint Louis, Missouri. On Tuesday, a smaller group of students left early to set up the pit and make sure everything would be set up for when the rest of the students arrived on Wednesday. We were placed into the Newton division, and with Team 1241, Team 1731, and Team 708 we played some great games in eliminations, but unfortunately were eliminated in the subdivision finals.

Qualifications

On Thursday and Friday, we played 10 qualification matches across both days, and earned 9 wins and 1 loss throughout those games. In qualification match 100, we even managed to push a disabled robot onto the batter, securing us an extra ranking point and winning us the game with a final score of 140-139. The qualifications overall went well for us, as we earned 35 ranking points and ended up as second seed going into eliminations.

Eliminations, Einstein, and Awards

Saturday opened with the alliance selections, and we partnered up with the first seed team, Team 1241, Team 1731, and Team 708. With this alliance we hoped to consistently score highly while preventing the opposing alliance from having free reign on their side of the field. This strategy seemed to work out throughout our quarterfinal and semifinal games, with us scoring around 240 points in most of those games. In fact, we scored 254 points in our second semifinals game excluding foul points; however, a red card on our alliance prevented our score from being recorded that game. Moving into the finals, we matched up against an alliance including Team 217, Team 4678, Team 3476, and Team 188. Although we played hard, we were eliminated from the tournament in the Newton finals.

In the end, we would like to congratulate Team 330, Team 2481, Team 120, and Team 1086 for their success in winning the FIRST Robotics Competition World Championships. Additionally, we are proud of Team 987’s achievement in earning the Chairman’s Award, cementing them as a Hall of Fame team. Overall, we are extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to interact and play against many great teams at the Championships and hope to do even better next year.

Overview

With the increased size of the championship from 400 teams last year to just over 600 teams this year, 4 new divisions were added: Tesla, Carson, Carver, and Hopper. Team 254 was a member of the Carson division and ended up seeding first, picking teams 973, 999, and 4499, and then unfortunately experiencing some bad luck and being eliminated in divisional quarterfinals.

However, the team received the Industrial Design Award for their outstanding robot and had a great time in St. Louis on Sunday.

Qualification Rounds

The team played a total of 10 qualification matches on Thursday and Friday. Some matches were tough, but in others the team scored more than 240 points! By the end of Friday, 254 seeded first with a qualification average of 211.1, the highest of any team at the Championship, let alone any official FIRST event.

Here are some videos of our Qual matches, recorded by Team 1511: Rolling Thunder.

Qual 9: https://www.yo...v=JZOhJp0zlb8

Qual 22: https://www.yo...v=RW7emwjSH3I

Qual 35: https://www.yo...v=tT2bwv63cBk

Qual 47: https://www.yo...v=FUoWPrFWpI4

Qual 63: https://www.yo...v=gWIw4apFnLg

Qual 70: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\-Epkfyrgus8

Qual 83: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IeSvV7UJxg

Qual 91: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDrRzd2mqQ8

Qual 103: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bTKW90O1MY

Qual 114: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HepI6GlEOQg

Awards, Alliance Selection, and Playoffs

The team received the Industrial Design Award. This award celebrates form and function in an efficiently designed machine that effectively addresses the game challenge. The judges were impressed with the robot's ability to stack effectively both from the landfill and from the human player station by using a tethered ramp. This year, awards were shared between 2 divisions \(about 150 teams total\), so to receive the award was quiet prestigious!

During Alliance Selection, Team 254 selected Teams 973: The Greybots, 999: The MechaRams, and 4499: The Highlanders. The alliance was hoping to strike a powerful balance between stacking from both the landfill and human player stations and using fast can grabbers to ensure we would always be able to put up as many stacks as possible.

However, despite all of the alliance's efforts, they were sadly eliminated in the quarterfinals. In their first match, buggy autonomous modes meant 254 was unable to get the 20pt tote stack. Then, after playing a nearly perfect match after that, Team 973 accidentally set down their last second stack on a noodle, causing that stack to fall over and domino another stack. Despite the terrible score, the alliance hoped that they could score at least 215 points in their second match to keep themselves qualified for the semi\-finals. Once again, however, 973 ran into 254 during auto, disrupting it and scattering the yellow totes in the way of the cans on the field. Then, after auto, Team 999 tipped over onto the landfill, blocking many of the totes 973 needed to make their stacks. It was an unfortunate series of events and bad luck and the whole alliance was bummed to have been knocked out so early.

However, the boys didn't stay upset for long, we quickly ran around and helped our friends \(1114, 971, 1678\) competing in other divisions. We loaned batteries to 1114, and cheered on our friends on 1678 as they went on to win the entire World Championship.

Relaxing in St. Louis!

On Sunday, students got to choose to either wake up at 10am and go to the City Museum or sleep in and meet up with the others at the Arch at 1pm. It was a lot of fun and really relaxing to hang out and take photos under the Arch for an hour before heading to the airport.

Overall, FRC Worlds this year was one of the best in a long time. All the students had a ton of fun and no one was really bummed for that long. We're excited to return and hoping to do better next year!

This afternoon, Lead Mentor Travis Covington received the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award at the Silicon Valley Regional!

This prestigious award is given to only one mentor at each regional for that mentor's ability to effectively communicate with and inspire students.

After nominating Travis for this award for many years in a row the entire team was so ecstatic to see someone so deserving finally get recognized. The students and mentors were cheering as if they had just won the World Championships again!