2017 New England District Championship

written by Daler Kang on 2017-04-08

After learning from Team 131 (C.H.A.O.S.) about optical limit switches, we implemented some to help control our Gear Goblin for the District Championship. On April 5, 2017, we travelled to UNH in Durham, New Hampshire, to compete at the 2017 New England District Championship against 63 other teams. Following a rough first day of qualification matches, we dominated the second and third day. We achieved 4 rotors or 40 KPA in nine of our qualification matches, which earned us the 17th position in the rankings. During alliance selection, we were invited by Team 3719 (STEM Whalers) and Team 1519 (Mechanical Mayhem) to join Alliance 3. With our alliance, we were aiming to score 40 KPA, four rotors, and three climbs in every match. In the first quarterfinal match, our alliance achieved only three rotors and two climbs, resulting in a loss. If we lost the next match, we would be out. In the next match, we scored all four rotors, 39 KPA, and three climbs. This was 484 points, which won us the match and was a personal high score for us. The next match was highly contested. We were able to pull out a 457 to 450 point win against Alliance 6; this moved us into the semifinals where we would face Alliance 2. Going into the semifinals, we were fairly confident that we would prove victorious. However, due to some defense, we lost the first match and bent our Gear Goblin fairly badly in the second match. Despite the broken Gear Goblin, we still won the second match. We had to work extremely quickly to fix our Gear Goblin before the tiebreaker match. Fortunately, we finished the fixes just in time and won the third semifinal match. We were moving onto the finals at the District Championship to face Alliance 1! After two hard-fought matches, we ultimately became District Championship Finalists! Morpheus would like to thank our fantastic alliance partners; we had a great time working with you! We also congratulate Team 2168 (Aluminum Falcons), Team 195 (CyberKnights), and Team 1073 (The Force Team) on a well-earned District Championship win.

At the end of the District Championship, we have 195 District Points, which puts us as the 11th ranked team in New England and the third ranked team in New Hampshire! This qualifies us for the World Championship in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 26 – 29, 2017. We cannot wait to see and compete with all of the amazing teams at the 2017 St. Louis Championship!