By David Fleet
Editor
Flint — On March 11, Goodrich and Brandon FIRST Robotics teams competed at the Kettering University FIRST Robotics District.
Following the Jan. 7 release of the 2023 challenge, FIRST teams across the world have been strategizing the game, designing, and building robots to compete and work their way to the international championship in Houston, Texas next month.
Both area teams took a first big step toward achieving that goal on Saturday as the Goodrich Team 494 seeded fourth and Brandon seeded seventh out of the 39 teams competing.
Next was the alliance selection, where the top 8 seeded teams get to select their two partners for the three on three competition, three teams on one alliance and 3 on the opposing alliance all on the field at the same time trying to get the highest score. Goodrich selected Brandon and the Waterford team 3098 as their alliance partners.
Despite, some several setbacks the alliance prevailed and were crowned winners of the Kettering FIRST District Event.
That win was step two for the teams in their quest to qualify for the world championship and puts them well on their way to that goal.
Goodrich Team 494 also took home the judged award sponsored by General Motors, “The Industrial Design Award”.
Brandon Team 68 took home the judged award for “Excellence in Engineering.”
A week earlier, Goodrich Team 70 competed at a District Event and seeded third, and came in second at the event, on top of that they brought the judged award for “Quality” and are also in good shape to qualify for the Championship competition in Houston.
Both Goodrich teams will be competing at the West Michigan District Event on March 24- 25. The Brandon team will be competing at the Troy District Event March 24- 25.