By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
The Bunnies are giving it their all against the world, but there’s still plenty of time left to qualify for this weekend’s championship matches.
Del Rio High School’s FIRST Robotics Competition Team 4063 TriKzR4Kidz is in Houston this weekend as part of the FRC World Championships. It’s the team’s seventh appearance at the world championships.
Qualifying for this weekend’s championship rounds began Thursday morning in the Hopper Division, which features 75 teams from all over the world. A total of 400 teams are competing at this year’s event with the teams broken up into different divisions.
As of noon on Friday, the Bunnies, as Team 4063 is known as, was ranked 44th out of the 75 teams and had gone 4-4 in its qualifying matches.
Del Rio competes as part of an alliance with two other teams. The groupings are random, but all three teams in an alliance are working with the same goal in mind – outscore their opponents by loading more cargo (oversized tennis balls), reach the highest bar in the hangars as possible and by avoiding any unnecessary penalties along the way.
Del Rio began its qualifying matches early on Thursday, picking up the win alongside teams from Warroad, Minn., and Denver, Colo. They dropped their second match, 100-90, alongside teams from Fayetteville, Ark., and Lake Orion, Mich.
They bounced back to win their third qualifying match with teams from Atasehir, Istanbul, Turkey and Ann Arbor, Mich., but again fell in the fourth qualifying match along with teams from Van Wert, Ohio, and Rochester, Mich.
In their final qualifying match Thursday, 4063 picked up a big win – 159-83 – along with teams from Bloomington, Ill., and Fort Collins, Colo.
Friday morning began with the Bunnies teaming up with Livonia, Mich., and Auburn Hills, Mich., for their first qualifier of the day. They came up just short, 115-110.
Del Rio also dropped its second qualifying match of the day, 80-63, as they were paired with a team from Phoenix, Ariz., and a team from Flanders, N.J., which is one of the oldest programs in FIRST Robotics history having debuted in 1997.
The Bunnies did pick up a win in their third qualifying match Friday, 80-75, along with teams from Novo Hamburgo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil and Eden Prairie, Minn.
Del Rio’s strength in this year’s world championships has been its shooting. The team’s robot, named Hoptimus Prime, has been able to drop payload into the top cylinder with regularity from just about anywhere on the playing field, but that has also made them a target as opposing alliances have often set robots to bump them and throw them off target.
The other problem facing the Bunnies has been the final objective, which is the hangar. Robots can earn points by hanging from different bars set at various heights, but Del Rio’s bot has had difficulty either getting to the hangar or getting enough height to earn big points for their alliance. In many of the qualifying matches, that final objective has proven to be a difference maker and has provided the winning edge for alliances.
Del Rio still has two more qualifying matches left. They are scheduled to compete at 2:03 p.m. as part of the Blue Alliance and at 4:02 p.m. as part of the Red Alliance. Times are subject to change.
Fans who want to watch the action live can do so online at https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires_hopper
—
Contact the author at drnhsports@gmail.com
