Competition History & Awards

The 2024 season broadens our horizons to include Art in the STEAM themed game year (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math). The game was based around concert stage performance theme, with robots scoring torus (ring-shaped) foam Notes into either a Speaker or Amp, then finishing the end game by pulling up onto the chain-based Stage. Scoring a minimum number of Notes per alliance earned a Melody ranking award, and a minimum number of points in the end game Stage area earned the Harmony ranking point.

This year’s robot, Typhoon, was the first the team had ever built with a turret shooter mechanism. The under-bumper intake fed the pliable Notes up through our “slurp” mechanism into the shooter at any angle, allowing the robot to intake and shoot Notes into the Speaker without having to realign the turret and drive base to a pre-set position. With the addition of a bar and arm mechanism, we could also score Notes into the Amp, and a pair of climbing hooks deployed in the end game to allow for a Stage climb either centered or with another robot for a Harmony climb.

We debuted Typhoon in its first iteration with the turret shooter mechanism at Glacier Peak where we triumphed as the number 1 seed captain and eventual event winner with a record of 16-3-0 for the event. We ranked first and captained the first alliance, eventually winning the event as well as being recognized with the Quality Award.

Typhoon increased in strength to Cat. 2 for the Bonney Lake event with a re-designed shooter and the addition of the bar and arm mechanism for Amp scoring. Our improvements helped the team to end qualifications in the number 4 spot, and but were able to bring home the season’s second blue banner as the first pick of alliance one, ending the day with a record of 14-2-1.

PNW District Champs was hit with Typhoon Cat. 3, now featuring a Stage climbing mechanism. We ended the quals ranked 12th and were selected as the first pick of the number 1 alliance again. Typhoon blew hard through the elimination rounds until dying back in round 3 of the elimination bracket, for a final event record of  10-5-0. We did not come home empty handed though, as the judges recognized us with an Innovation in Control Award. With this particular honor, Team 2910 completed the FIRST Engineering Award hexfecta — having received each of the six judged engineering awards offered at FIRST events at least one time.

Typhoon Cat. 4 made landfall in the Newton division at the World Championship in Houston. We had high hopes for our chances, having iterated and improved the robot between every event. Whirling through the exciting and stiff competition, we ended quals ranked 21 and were selected to join the number 2 seed alliance for the eliminations rounds, making it all the way to the end only to be eliminated in the best 2 out of 3 for the Newton division. Being a finalist team at World Championship still comes with a great trophy, and we also received the recognition of the Innovation in Control Award for this prestigious competition, edging out 74 other robots for the honor.

Off-season saw us back at the elite Indiana Robotics Invitational (IRI) event in July, where we seeded 1 and brought home the slightly corn-scented IRI banner for the second year in a row.

In September, we headed to San Jose for the lauded “Best in the West” event, Chezy Champs. After three years as finalists at this incredible off-season tournament, we finally clinched the elusive W! That win made us the first team ever to take both IRI and Chezy Champs in the same year.

This has been a year full of amazing firsts for this FRC team, and we are always humbled and grateful for the support of our district, school, sponsors, and families. Onward to REEFSCAPE in 2025!

The 2023 season encouraged us to look at energy use and sustainable development with the Charged Up game. This year, the field featured a Grid for scoring game pieces. Robots could pick up Cubes and Cones to score them in the appropriate Nodes. During the first fifteen seconds of every match, robots would do this autonomously. To score additional points at the end of the game, robots climbed and balanced on moving “Charge Stations.”

We built two identical robots this season, called Phantom and Loki. They were equipped with Swerve Drive Specialties MK4i swerve modules, powered by Falcon 500 motors, as well as three dead-axle rollers to allow the intake of both Cubes and Cones. 

As always, we debuted our robot at Glacier Peak where we started off strong with zero losses during the whole event. We ranked first and captained the first alliance, winning the event. We also earned the Excellence in Engineering Award.

Then we moved on to SunDome, where after many exciting matches we ranked first again and won as captains of the first alliance, additionally taking home the Industrial Design Award. 

At Sammamish, we again ranked first and won the event, earning yet another award–the Autonomous Award. 

At District Championships, just like all the events before, we won the event as the first seated alliance, winning a second Industrial Design Award. 

On the Galileo Field at the World Championship, we competed against seventy-six other teams and ranked fifty-first. We were the first pick of the third alliance and won our first semifinal match, though we unfortunately struck out later on and were eliminated after Semifinal Match 10. 

Overall, we had such a great season and we’re proud of everything we accomplished. Our blue banners hang proudly in our school and we’re excited to add to the collection in 2024!

In 2022, we took a trip into the world of transportation with the Rapid React game. This game involves two alliances, each comprising three teams. Each team operates a robot, undertaking specific tasks to accumulate points. The focal point of the game is for both alliances to launch inflatable balls, referred to as Cargo, into a central Hub. To introduce Cargo throughout the match, human players operated Terminals on either end of the field. Additionally, teams aim to ascend within their Hangars as the match concludes. The primary goal in every match is to outscore the opposing alliance before the match concludes.

Team 2910’s robot this year was called Thor, in honor of a recently retired coach, Ms. Thorleifson. Thor was equipped with our signature Swerve Drive Specialties MK4i swerve modules and a speedy mecanum wheel intake for easy Cargo pickup. Our drivetrain was powered by Falcon 500 motors and Thor was equipped with a hood that could both aim and shoot Cargo and climb the Hangars.

Debuting our robot at Glacier Peak, we started the season strong by captaining the first alliance and winning the event. We also earned the Autonomous Award. 

Our second event, SunDome, was a similar story. We once again captained the first alliance and won the event, though this time with a perfect record of 12-0-0 in qualification matches and 6-0-0 in playoff matches. 

Then at Bonney Lake, we ranked second but secured the win as the first pick of alliance one. We also earned an additional autonomous award. 

At District Championships, we ranked first of fifty teams and captained the first alliance yet again, ultimately winning the event and securing our spot at the World Championship. 

At Worlds, we ranked third of the seventy-six teams in the Newton division and, captaining the third alliance, won our division. On the Einstein Field, we won three matches before we were eliminated in Semifinal Match 15 with our alliance placing third overall in this international competition. 

It was a hugely successful season overall and we’re so happy to call ourselves World Division winners. Thanks for joining us in Rapid React!

Getting deja vu? Due to COVID-19 complications and restrictions, the 2021 game presents a remote format in which students can participate in robotics challenges while staying safe and socially distanced. Infinite Recharge At Home (2021) is a reboot of the previous season’s game with a virtual twist. With no events scheduled, this season was a unique challenge. 

The rules were fundamentally the same as the 2020 season with some minor changes to adapt to the new virtual environment. Teams were tasked with completing “skills challenges,” such as the Power Port Challenge (in which students used their robot to pick up and score power cells) or the AutoNav Challenge (in which students programmed the robot to autonomously navigate three predetermined paths in as little time as possible). 

In addition, each team was tasked with a Game Design Challenge and an Innovation Challenge. The Game Design Challenge asked teams to come up with hypothetical FRC game ideas that could potentially be made into official season games. Specials rewards were created for this challenge, including the Designer’s Award, the Concept Award, the Imagery Award, the Creativity Award, the Engineering Design Award, and/or the Rookie Design Award. The Innovation Challenge tasked students with solving problems related to the Game Changers theme. Teams presented their solutions to a panel of judges in a business-pitch style, and judges’ evaluations could determine whether the team moved on to the next stage of the challenge. 

This year, Team 2910 made a miniature version of our 2020 robot, dubbed Baby Grond. We participated in all of the virtual games and had a ton of fun navigating this unexpected challenge. 

After competing in the Infinite Recharge At Home Challenge, we took home a blue banner for Rhodium Group. 

Later, participating in Phosphorus Group during the Game Design Challenge, we won the Engineering Design Award .

And during the 2021 off-season, once we were allowed to compete in person, we had a great time at Bordie Recharge, where we took home the win, and were thrilled to be a finalist at Chezy Champs, where we also won a Quality Award.

This 2020 season, the game is INFINITE RECHARGE and the goal is to protect FIRST City from an incoming asteroid shower by powering up their Shield Generator. Starting with two alliances with three robots each on opposite sides of the field, robots are pre-loaded with up to three Power Cells, the game piece used to score points during the match. Similar to previous years, during the first 15 seconds of the match the robots move autonomously. Robots can score during this period in any of the three Power Ports. After the 15 seconds are up, drivers regain control over their robots as they try to score as many Power Cells as possible. Robots can obtain more Power Cells from any of the five chutes in their loading bay. Another method of scoring is via the  Control Panel. After scoring a required number of Power Cells, robots will either rotate the Control Panel a specified amount of times, or position it to a specific color. At the end of the match, robots race to their Rendezvous Point to climb for extra points in order to make their Shield Generator operational and protect FIRST City!

Our 2020 robot, Grond, features the Swerve Drive Specialities MK2 modules powered by Falcon motors. Again, going for simple and competitive, our robot debuted with a 7-power cell autonomous and climb capability. Later in the season we deployed a control panel feature to allow us to manipulate that game element.

At our debut event in Glacier Peak, Grond and our drive team performed well, placing first overall and captaining the number 1 seed alliance to a blue banner win.

In our second event at West Valley, we ended qualifications in second place, and were selected by the first place team to join the number 1 seed alliance, again earning the blue banner.

Unfortunately, due to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 illness cause by novel Coronavirus, the FIRST organization suspended the FRC regular season worldwide during week 3. We feel incredibly grateful to have played two events when many teams around the world were not able to go to even one competition. As of this writing (March 14, 2020) we hope that our PNW season may resume in the fall of 2020, but that has yet to be determined.