Poly High robotics team made it to world championships in Houston – Long Beach Press Telegram

Long Beach Poly Rabbotics team won the Aerospace Valley Regional, qualifying to go to championships in Houston in April. (Photo courtesy of Poly Rabbotics)

The robotics team at Poly High School dubbed the Poly Rabbotics recently made campus history.

Thats because Poly Rabbotics won a regional competition for the first time, which sent them to Houston for the 2023 FIRST Robotics Competition championships. FIRST means, For inspiration and recognition of science and technology.

The regional title was the programs first since it began in 2018. The recent trip to Houston represented the teams second appearance in the championship competition.

Poly Rabbotics Team 7042 is a student-led team with about 40 members. In recent years, the team has sent a robot to the Del Mar Regional where it won the Judges award and the LA and OC regionals; it was the Rookie Inspiration Award in Los Angeles in 2018.

And then, late last month, the team made it to the FIRST Championship for the second time. It was made it in 2019.

The contests are organized by FIRST Robotics Competition, a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring students to study science, technology, engineering and math. Each year, teams composed of high school students, coaches and mentors work during a six-week period to build game-playing robots designed for the competition.

Wyvern is the name of Long Beach Poly High School robotic teams robot. (Photo courtesy of Poly Rabbotics)

Long Beach Poly Rabbotics team won the Aerospace Valley Regional, qualifying to go to championships in Houston in April. (Photo courtesy of Poly Rabbotics)

Long Beach Poly Rabbotics team won the Aerospace Valley Regional, qualifying to go to championships in Houston in April. (Photo courtesy of Poly Rabbotics)

Long Beach Poly Rabbotics team won the Aerospace Valley Regional, qualifying to go to championships in Houston in April. (Photo courtesy of Poly Rabbotics)

Long Beach Poly Rabbotics team won the Aerospace Valley Regional, qualifying to go to championships in Houston in April. (Photo courtesy of Poly Rabbotics)

More than 600 teams, split into eight divisions, competed in Houston from all around the world, split into eight divisions.

Poly Rabbotics division featured nearly 80 teams some from Brazil, Mexico, Taiwan, Australia and Canada in the fight to make the playoffs, said Sydney Chaikittirattana, a Poly senior and the teams operations director.

During our time at the FRC World Championship, our team spent time both preparing our robot for some of our seniors final matches, she said, and exploring the competition and learning from our peers.

Their robot, named Wyvern, was designed to play this years game, Charged Up, which required robots pick up cones and cubes, and score them in goal areas.

At the end, there is a big platform that shifts so you have to drive your robot onto it and balance, said Lauren Higuchi, the Long Beach teams co-captain. This year was a little bit more simple functions but still a very complex game.

Higuchi managed the construction and design of the robot. After three years of being on the team, the senior said, she was excited to make it to the championships.

The team had come a long way from the start of the year, she said.

Our first regional, we did not have a good showing, Higuchi said. It was the first time we hadnt even made it to playoffs at that regional; we were at an all-time low.

As the team went into the Aerospace Valley Regional in Lancaster, she said, the first couple of days felt as if everything was going wrong.

At the end of the day of competition, our prospects were not looking good, Higuchi said. We all thought that we might not even make it to eliminations again and for me and I know the other seniors as our last year on the team we were all saying, It cant end like this.

But when the top eight teams at the regionals picked other groups with which to ally going into elimination rounds, Poly Rabbotics was picked by the first-place crew, Team 7157 Botics, from Brea. That allowed them to claim a spot for the finals, alongside Team 4414 HighTide, from Ventura.

Alliances are formed between three teams for the elimination rounds. Poly Rabbotics and the two other teams got through the quarterfinals, semifinals and then the finals as the winning alliance.

Two alliances competed in the best-of-three final round during the Lancaster regional, Chaikittirattana said with a spot in Houston on the line.

Polys alliance won.

This was the first time Poly Rabbotics made it to the FIRST championship because it won a regionals competition.

The team was excited to reach a point they never had before and to once again learn from the best teams worldwide, Chaikittirattana said.

At the championships, which took place from April 19 to 22, Wyvern fought hard and won some crucial matches, Chaikittirattana said but it also took some brutal damage in the process.

However, our team was always quick to bounce back and we didnt miss a single match, Chaikittirattana said. Despite smoking motors, bent titanium and programming errors, we ended our last match stronger than ever.

Even though their championship run ended earlier than the team had hoped they finished 47th in the Curie Division the students remained in high spirits, and supported their favorite teams in the finals. They watched their friends from Team HighTide, in Ventura, become World Champions in the Hopper Division.

We went from the lowest of lows at the beginning of the season, Higuchi said, to it all coming together at the end and it was all worth it.

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Poly High robotics team made it to world championships in Houston - Long Beach Press Telegram