On Saturday, November 2, 2024, Northwood School’s robotics team, Team 6300, traveled to their first competition of the year and came away with a 3rd place win.  Jeff Martin, long-time robotics coach and mentor, and a small group of the team (Add Truscott ’25, Cambrie-Elizabeth Encalade ’27, Wang Lun “Will” Wong ’27, and Jingxi Zhao ’27) traveled to Ballston Spa’s High School to compete in the New York Tech Valley Robot Rumble.

True to his student-centered and student-driven coaching style, Jeff Martin deferred to veteran team member and captain Add Truscott ‘25 to share her perspective on the competition and season. Add said, “We had our first off-season competition last Saturday, which was the 2024 game called FRC ‘Crescendo’ (see link below for video). In this competition, there are qualification rounds that last for about half the day during an off-season event. In qualification matches, there are two alliances competing against each other. Each alliance has 3 robotics teams that make up it. Qualification rounds are all round robin, where alliances are randomly selected and switched every match. The purpose of qualification matches is to gain ranking points. Ranking points, in theory, show who the leading robotics team is, but in reality, they are not a good measure of a quality robot. The top 8 ranked robot teams become team captains for the elimination rounds. Elimination rounds function in a double-elimination tournament style. The top 8 ranked robot teams pick two other robotics teams to join their alliance. Then the 8 alliances compete against each other until a winner is determined.”

About their performance, Add added, “We got third in the competition. But if you break it down, it’s not a feat. There were 13 teams competing. This means during the elimination rounds, we only beat one alliance. However, that does not mean our robot was not good. In fact, our robot was one of the most functional robots there. It consistently earned the most points in each alliance and did not break down. We even kept up our streak from the regular season of getting the highest score of the competition. So, I think our robot did exceptionally well. But that’s not the only thing that did well. The people on our team did great, too. Cambrie and Willow were both on the team last year, but they had new jobs compared to last year in this competition. In that regard, I saw great improvement in both. Will had to learn how to use all the controls for the robot and performed incredibly well under pressure. Willow drove the robot and shot into the speaker, Will climbed and shot into the amplifier, Cambrie was the human player and gave game pieces to the robot, and I [Add] was the coach, meaning I guided the rest of the drive team in and outside of each match and worked out strategies.”

Looking ahead, Add said, “I’m always looking forward to the next season. But I am especially excited for this upcoming season. Maybe it’s because it will be my last, but I also think it’s because there are so many new people and so much room for learning and growth. You can’t predict anything; it’s amazing. Last year, we knew we had a good driver and could assume we could get far in competitions; this year, the possibilities are endless. I’m excited to see what this year’s robotics team can do when it comes to building the robot and the team aspect. Crossing my fingers that we qualify for world championships.”

Team member Cambrie-Elizabeth Encalade ’27 added, “Tech Valley Rumble was so fun. It was our final competition with the New Leaf robot before we started taking it apart and rebuilding it for the new season. Since it is off-season, it was more of a practice competition for us and most teams to prepare for the new games. This was my first time being a human player, and I was also a technician. Our team graduated a lot of players last year, so we are a lot smaller now, and we need everyone to be on the field for every round. It also gave our newest member, Will, the chance to get used to First Robotics and the opportunity to see what it is like being on the field. We had a great experience and bonded with the teams we competed with, and we also bonded together as a team. Now we are just waiting for the new season game requirements to drop so we can start on our new robot. I am working on a new design for a logo and T-shirts as well as a new name for our team #ripnorthwoodiantrashpandas.”

Each member of Team 6300 brings enthusiasm and a skill set that is important to the team dynamics and the fun they have. Stay tuned to hear about more success from Team 6300 as their season ramps up in March.