Submitted by Matt Bisson, FRC 131 CHAOS mentor, Central Class of 2017
Thank you all so much for all of your efforts to get Central High School to the World Championship this past weekend. Without your efforts and the effort of everyone from the District, we would not have been able to attend.
As a recap, CHAOS competed in the Daly Division with 75 teams from around the world. This included many states, Canada, Mexico, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Israel, and Türkiye. We had the honor of playing on the field with teams from each of those countries throughout our time at the event. We went 7-3 in qualification match play, and we entered the Playoff tournament as the 8th ranked team overall.
From there, we invited teams from Texas, California, and Minnesota to our playoff alliance. After a loss in our first match, we won four in a row to make it to the finals. We put up a very strong fight, but ultimately lost to the team that would go on to be World Champions at the event. CHAOS finishes out our season having a Win and gold medal at the New England Championship, and a 2nd place finish and silver medal at the World Championship.
I cannot overstate how successful the team was at this event and all season. One of our students said simply "This was the best day ever, and even if we had lost, that would be true," and that sentiment was echoed by both students and mentors on the team. Seeing how inspired all of our students are after this event makes me so incredibly excited for the future of the team and of robotics in Manchester.
As an alumni of the team and Central High School, I cannot express how much it meant to me to see us have so much success with the backing of the teachers, school district, and city. These students are the future, and the impact that this season and this event had on them will last a lifetime.
You had invited us to come to a School Board meeting in the near future. If you could, please remind me of the date and time. The whole team will be there, and a few students have expressed interest in communicating how valuable the experience you enabled us to provide was to them.
Finally, while we are taking a (short) break, we have several scrimmage events over the "Off-Season." We use these to try new things, and give younger students the chance to step into leadership roles at events. The first of these is June 1-2 at WPI in Worcester, Mass. We would love to see you there! We also have our end of year celebration that we would love to invite you too. A date for this will be coming shortly.
Thank you so much! I look forward to continuing our work to bolster and heighten the impact of robotics at Central and in Manchester.