Hi to all PA FTC Teams and Volunteers,
We hope you are all well and looking forward to enjoying spring weather and all the new hopes and aspirations the season will bring.
We at Pennsylvania FIRST Robotics are sad to see yet another PA FTC Season end, but already look forward to next season, especially given the enthusiasm and warm feelings we had working and playing with all of the amazing FTC teams since last September. We move forward with pride and joy at the results of what we feel was a very successful and fun experience for our teams. We hope you feel the same.
The season culminated in our PA Championship last weekend, Mar 16 and 17th at Saucon Valley Middle School, a two-day extravaganza of tough, amazing and exciting competition as well as our Saturday evening Team Social at the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem. The social included a team (and adult) dance featuring DJ Tommy Gunn and ice cream for all as served up by our new friends, Dinky’s Ice Cream Parlor. This was the third year in a row that we held the Championship at the school, and we could not have made it happen without the wonderful and strong support of the Saucon Valley school district, the FTC Panthera teams, our volunteers and especially the competing teams for their patience, cooperation and the high energy we felt throughout the two days. Matches were as exciting as any we have experienced and the event went very smoothly, running on time throughout, and getting our teams safely on the road by 3:15 PM on Sunday.
We also had a custom apparel vendor on site Innovation by Design LLC. If you are interested in either the PA Championship or other FTC related apparel, please go to the following website and check it out:
https://robotics-ftc.spiritsale.com
The event results and pictures should be up on our website this coming weekend. The results will include the narrative for each Judged Award as well. If there are any participants that would like to share their own photos with us, especially the Team Social, please let us know or simply put them up on a drive and provide the link to ftc@pennfirst.org.
For now, you can find the PA Championship results on the FIRST Inspires site:
https://ftc-events.firstinspires.org/2023/USPACMP/awards
Of course, all of our PA Qualifier results are on our website:
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2023-2024-season
We are honored to announce the following 4 teams who have advanced from the PA Championship to the upcoming FIRST Championship in Houston, TX, April 17-20, 2024 Please join us in extending congratulations and wishing them the best of luck as they continue their competition journey:
Inspire Award: Team 20153 Silver Wolves, Unionville High School, Kennett Square
Winning Alliance – Captain: Team 8468 The Javengers, Family/Community Team, Mechanicsburg
Inspire Award – 2nd Place: Team 16468 Green Lemons, Unionville High School & Charles F Patton Middle School, West Chester (they were also on the Winning Alliance – 1st Team Selected)
Inspire Award – 3rd Place: Team 14423 RoboCorns, Downingtown Area Robotics, Exton (this is the 2nd consecutive year that the team will participate in the Championship)
Congratulations to our three Dean’s List Finalists. We wish them luck and hope to have a Championship winner again the season to join Lucas Boyle, last year’s Finalist, in this honor:
Jeremy Hsu – Team 16468 Green Lemons
Shreyas Trivedi – Team 20152 Battlebots
Tarun Malarvasan – Team 8468 The Javengers
We are proud of you all!
This year, at the Houston Championship, there will be 224 FTC teams competing from around the World separated into 2 Conferences, 112 teams per conference and 56 teams per Division, the largest FTC Championship ever! There are many proud and energized Pennsylvania volunteers that will also be assisting in various key roles
Registration for the 2024-2025 FTC Season opens in May, so please look out for the specific date. We will also inform you.
Next Season Kick-off will be Sept 7th, 2024. The full Season theme will be announced at the Championship.
Thank you to all of our teams and volunteers for a wonderful season. We look forward to bigger and better things next year and hope to have you all back.
All the best, and as always, stay safe and healthy.
Sincerely,
The Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge Team