LIGHTNING STRIKES AGAIN! Robotics team wins inaugural competition – Hometownlife.com

When it rains it pours -- confetti, that is. The field is nearly hidden in a sea of confetti after Team 862 and its alliance members won the Festival of Champions.(Photo: Mike Saunders)

Not even the school year can contain Plymouth-Canton's Lightning Robotics Team 862.

Three months after capturing a world championship in St. Louis, Team 862 traveled to New Hampshire to team with its St. Louis alliance to win the inaugural FIRST Robotics Festival of Champions.

The competition the first of its kind in the birthplace of FIRST Robotics pitted the world championship teams from this spring's competitions in St. Louis and in Houston, Texas.

And the festival was won in epic style, with Team 862 and its St. Louis alliance Stryke Force from Kalamazoo, Cheesy Poofs from San Jose, Calif., and The Pascack PI-oneers from New Jersey scoring a record 588 points to win the best of five match, 3-2.

Team 862 faculty advisor Jay Obsniuk with the star of the show, Valkyrie.(Photo: Mike Saunders)

"It was the most amazing weekend," said Jay Obsniuk, the robotics honcho and faculty adviser to Team 862. "To meet (FIRST Robotics founder) Dean Kamenand all the leaders who attendedand then to go out and win was amazing."

Plymouth-Canton actually sat out the first two matches of the best-of-five series against the Houston champions teams from California, Arizona and Georgia then got back into the rotation for the third matches.

The St. Louis alliance came back to win the final three matches of the set to win the inaugural title.

"It was really exciting to come back and win three straight," Obsniuk said.

Vivian Clements, who starts her senior year at Canton High School next month, said the Festival of Champions is different from the world championships in St. Louis. For one thing, she said, you don't have to compete to find out whether you're chosen to be in an alliance.

Having a lot of those kinds of issues settled made for a quick, exciting competition, she said.

"In St. Louis, you're competing very hard for three days," said Clements, who served as a human player, collecting and feeding gears to the team's robot, Valkyrie. "The Festival of Champions is different. You already know who your alliance is, you just have to work hard and do your best. It was a whole big collaborative effort."

Theoretically, 2017 graduate Tyler Harris's robotics career should have been over. Harris, the team's pilot in the on-field airship,was part of the St. Louis alliance that captured Plymouth-Canton's first world titleand then put off starting at Kettering University in order to travel to New Hampshire.

Obviously, he's pretty happy he did.

"It's insane. ... When you go from just having an idea to having a full-fledged robot to working with your alliance ... it's mind-boggling," said Harris, due in a college classroom about 12 hours after returning from the trip. "I wouldn't trade that experience for anything."

bkadrich@hometownlife.com

Twitter: @bkadrich

An enthusiastic crowd of supporters welcomed Team 862 back from New Hampshire.(Photo: Brad Kadrich)

Pilot Tyler Harris, who is now off to Kettering to get his college career started, was all smiles after the Festival of Champions.(Photo: Mike Saunders)

Team 862 from Plymouth-Canton worked with its alliance to win the first Festival of Champions.(Photo: Mike Saunders)

Members of Team 862 show off the championship banner they brought home from the Festival of Champions in New Hampshire.(Photo: Brad Kadrich)

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LIGHTNING STRIKES AGAIN! Robotics team wins inaugural competition - Hometownlife.com