07 Jun 2021
On Saturday 15 May, the Gong Invaders, consisting of Riley Checklin, Jack Webb, Louis Liu and Oscar Chevalier, attended the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) State of Origin at Barker College. They competed against 11 other NSW teams and 12 QLD teams, where the winning alliance of NSW would compete against the winning alliance of QLD, crowning a State of Origin winner.
FTC is a robotics program run by the organisation FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), whose mission is to inspire young people to take part in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In the current season called Ultimate Goal, alliances of two teams must compete to score the most points, which are achieved by shooting rings into various goals. A match begins with an autonomous period, where robots must control themselves for 30 seconds. The last two minutes is when two drivers can control the robot to score points.
The Gong Invaders managed to win five out of six games, placing them in first place for the majority of the day. They chose two other teams to form an alliance with and after a very close best of three finals, the Gong Invaders, along with the Barker Bluebacks and Orangebacks, became the best alliance in NSW. Following these games, they competed against the top alliance in QLD, where the Gong Invaders took a decisive victory!
Written by Riley Checklin
