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North Branch FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) Teams have officially completed their season with three teams in the state tournament.  Team RoboGlaciers (the all girls team) competed in the Nano Division and was part of an alliance in the elimination rounds.  Going up against the #1 alliance, they were eliminated in the semi-finals.  Team FIRE and Glitchy Bears competed in the Galaxy division and did not advance to the elimination rounds.

Advancing to the state tournament is an accomplishment itself, many team awards were earned along the way.

In November robotics competition, RoboGlaciers was part of the #2 alliance and defeated the #1 alliance in the finals 2-1 securing their place in the state tournament  FIRE was part of the #2 alliance.

RoboGlaciers earned the Connect Award which is for teams that work with their local STEM community and corporate community, taking second place for the Motivate Award for how all team members contribute to the success of the team, and also second for the Promote Award for their one minute video creating a public service announcement for FIRST.

In December competition, all four North Branch teams qualified for the finals.  RoboGlaciers finished first overall and drafted GlitchyBears to be part of their first place alliance, FIRE was part of the second place alliance and JagWires was part of the third place alliance.  Unfortunately, FIRE eliminated JagWires when their 2nd place alliance defeated the 3rd place alliance.  In the finals it was the #1 alliance vs the #2 alliance with RoboGlaciers and Glitchy Bears prevailing 2-0 over the teams, with FIRE

Awards continued to pile up for RoboGlaciers as they once again won the Connect Award, took third for the Motivate Award and added two awards to their resume, including the Inspire and Think Awards.  The Inspire Award is the top award for an FTC team. It is given to a team that consistently rises to the top in other awards categories.  The Think Award is based entirely on the Engineering Notebook and Engineering Portfolio.

In this competition, FIRE also was recognized for third place in the Control Award which recognizes a team that has a good software solution to make their robot “intelligent”. And finally, Glitchy Bears won the Innovate Award which is for teams with innovative robots or robot mechanisms.

All in all, it was a very good season for the North Branch FTC Teams.  Teams are forming for next year so if you will be in seventh grade or above and are interested in being part of this program, please reach out to the North Branch Activities Department or email [email protected].

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