Blog #4: Houston World Championships

C.W. Lai
May 11, 2019
2 min read

From April 17th to April 20th, Team 254 was at the First Robotics World Championships in Houston, Texas. Over 700 robotics teams competed at the Houston World Championships including FIRST Lego League ages 9 to 16, varies by country); FIRST Tech Challenge (ages 12 to 18); and FIRST Robotics Competition (ages 14 to 18). Our team, Team 254, the Cheesy Poofs, competed in the First Robotics Competition. Since there are so many teams, all the teams are divided into six sections or divisions. Galileo, Carver, Hopper, Newton, Roebling, Turing Divisions are the six divisions. This year we were placed in the Turing Division along with 65 other teams. These divisions pan out just like any other competition. After all the divisions are finished. The winners from all the divisions will move to Minute Maid Park and play in the final division also known as Einstein Field. This year, we won our subdivision so we were awarded the Championship Subdivision Winner. We also won the Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors. Einstein field was really intense, but due to some connections problems and a few unlucky events, Team 254 lost in the final round of the world championships winning the Championships Finalists Award. Even though compared to last year, we did worse, however, winning the Championships Finalists Award is still a huge deal and I will never forget that moment. I would also like the congratulate the Winning Alliance of the FIRST Robotics Competition, Team 973, Greybots, Atascadero, Calif.; Team 1323, MadTown Robotics, Madera, Calif.; Team 5026, Iron Panthers, Burlingame, Calif.; and Team 4201, The Vitruvian Bots, El Segundo, Calif. Seeing an all California team really helped me realize how California was driving the technology sector of America and probably even the whole world.