By Brandyn Mello
On the weekend of March 22 to March 24, Western New England University hosted its 5th FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) district event. Teams ranging from upper New Hampshire to lower Connecticut come to this event for one thing—to have fun.
On January 6, 2024, FIRST released a video with details about this year’s contest, a game called Crescendo. This release day is often a special one for robotics competition teams, since it allows them to come together in a community with similar interests. After release day, teams begin designing, testing, and refining a robot that is effective at playing Crescendo.
A full match lasts 2:30 minutes. When a team goes to play a match, they will be assigned two random teams to work with in an alliance. This could mean that a given team might play against another in one match, then ally with their former opponent in the next.
When the match begins, a team’s robot plays the first 15 seconds in autonomous mode. During this first phase of the game, robots can score points by moving and by scoring a Note – putting an orange ring into their side’s goal. After 15 seconds elapse, a buzzing noise signals the start of co-op mode, and for the next 2:15 minutes, teams actively drive their robots to score Notes.
During the last 20 seconds of playing time, a guitar riff-like sound will be played. This lets the drive team know that it is time to finish up your round trip, score a Note, and climb onto the hanging chain.
A buzzing sound signals the end of a match. While officials reset the field to prepare the arena for the next match, a race car zips past the finish line, showing which alliance won the match.
Ranking Points are given based on meeting certain requirements during a match. Teams can earn Ranking Points by winning the match, completing certain requirements during autonomous mode, and completing certain requirements in the regular match. These Ranking Points are the basis for ranking teams during the competition and ranking them against others in the New England District.
After a day and a half of matches, the top 8 highest ranked teams at the event will become alliance captains for alliance selections. Alliance selection is when the highest-ranked captain selects the best team to partner with. After an alliance captain extends an invitation to join their alliance, a representative from the invited team will either accept or decline their invitation. If a team accepts the invitation, they will be allied with them during elimination rounds. If a team declines the invitation to be an alliance partner, that team may not be invited to become another captain’s partner. However, they do not lose the right to become an alliance captain. Each alliance captain can get two other teams to work with during the eliminations rounds. The alliance captains were team 177 (1st overall), 8085 (3rd overall), 1099 (4th overall), 1740 (5th overall), 1699 (6th overall ), 8709 (8th overall), 263 (9th overall), and 3182 (10th overall).
Once all eight alliances are complete, robots are re-inspected to maintain safety and integrity. Alliances are then placed into a playoff bracket. Each bracket’s winners will advance to the next round, while losers get sent to the lower bracket. If an alliance loses in the lower bracket, they are sent “home.” After many elimination rounds, the finals are played against the upper bracket’s winning team and the lower bracket’s winning team, a best out of three.
