This season, after an amazing yet exhausting build period, our team—the New Lothrop Steel Stingers—finally believed we were competition-ready. We had spent so much time finalizing plans and making tiny adjustments that we were almost certain nothing could go wrong.
Of course, we weren’t naïve. Something always goes wrong, no matter how much effort we put into making the robot infallible. Nothing is perfect—especially our robot. But, kinks aside, this was our best competition season ever—even better than our rookie year in 2020, when we made it to States. Although we didn’t end up qualifying for the State Competition this year, we were within ten spots of earning a seat. And since it was hosted at SVSU, many of our team members went to watch and experience the event.
Our first competition was hosted at Kettering University, one of our favorite places to compete each year. Aside from the great food and beautiful campus, it’s considered one of the top engineering schools in Michigan. With an acceptance rate of 79%, Kettering also offers generous scholarships to students involved in FIRST. At that event, we placed 18th out of 40 teams. Although we didn’t make it to the playoffs, we used what we learned there to improve for the next competition.
Our second competition took place at Wayne State University, which ranks #179 among national universities. It was our first time competing there, and we ended up placing third out of 40 teams. We captained the Number Three Alliance in the playoffs and were eventually knocked out by the top-ranked alliance. It was by far the best competition our team has ever participated in. We left with the Industrial Design Award, fresh excitement, and new motivation for our next challenge.
By the end of the season, we ranked 170th out of 619 Michigan FIRST teams—just ten places short of qualifying for States. We're confident that, with our new members and experiences, next year we'll compete at States - and maybe even Worlds!