Due to the current conditions of COVID-19 and the repeat of the 2020 season, it was recently announced on May 25th that the 2020 Rah Cha Cha Ruckus off-season event was officially canceled. In an official post on the event’s website, it was stated that “official playing fields are unavailable for off-season events.” Furthermore, due to the uncertainty of New York’s reopening, it was difficult to guarantee that the event would have been able to commence as originally planned.
The Warlocks have competed at the annual Ruckus off-season event every year since its inception in 2005. While the Warlocks are disappointed that our only offseason event is canceled, we know that it’s for the health and safety of our community, which is far more important. We are looking forward to participating in the 2021 Ruckus and supporting our local offseason event.
You can read the official post here: http://ruckus.penfieldrobotics.com/ruckus-2020
Ever since we tearfully left the Finger Lakes Regional, the Warlocks have missed robotics and the community it creates. While we were grateful to compete at the Miami Valley Regional, and ultimately win the Creativity Award, we missed having the competition with our local friendly teams in Rochester.
However, just because the season did not end, as usual, doesn’t mean the Warlocks are alone. Our seniors have crafted their senior speeches, waiting to read them to one another when we can all meet again. Our head mentors have been diligently working on creating a virtual banquet to honor the team’s accomplishments this year, as well as recognize our Dean List’s and Woodie Flowers nominees.
The Warlocks, even though we cannot see each other, are still the community we’ve always been. We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe during these challenging times and reaching out to those communities who support you.
During the 2021 season, the team in quarantine participated in Game Changer. Team 1507 performed well in a virtual game design process and an innovation project called The Kit of Fit. Students met virtually online weekly. Programming classes and CAD classes ran throughout the season. Team 1507 was very happy with the participation of all the team members.
On May 13th, FIRST announced many new updates to its COVID-19 blog post. This post provided updates regarding the 2020 season, which has been officially canceled. However, since almost half of FRC teams did not get to play Infinite Recharge, FIRST is replaying this game for the 2021 season.
However, the game will not be identical. New rules to the game and changes in gameplay will be announced at kickoff, on January 9th, 2021. This still maintains the traditional build season but allows teams to reuse integral components in their 2021 gameplay.
The Warlocks are ultimately disappointed by the cancellation of the 2020 season but are grateful we were able to compete at Miami Valley.
You can read more about FIRST’s response to COVID-19 here: https://www.firstinspires.org/covid-19
This year, instead of going to the Buckeye regional, the Warlocks have decided to attend the Miami Valley Regional in Fairborn Ohio. This will be the first of two regional’s that the team competes at. Although we are sad to leave the Buckeye Regional, we are excited to compete at Miami Valley.
Location and Dates:
The Miami Valley Regional will be held from February 26th to the 29th. The event is hosted at the Wright State University Nutter Center. The address is listed below:
Wright State University
3640 Colonel Glenn Highway
Fairborn, OH 45324
The webcast for the Miami Valley Regional will be available on The Blue Alliance, along with several other community run sites for aggregating webcasts for all official FRC Events. We recommend using The Blue Alliance, as they are typically the most reliable.
Below is a direct link to GameDay, which is the name of The Blue Alliance’s webcast portal. To watch the Miami Valley Regional, hover over the webcasts link in the top left and drag “Miami Valley Regional” into one of the viewing panes below.
There are many different sources for match schedules and results, but the only official source is from FIRST themselves. Below are links to the official FIRST event result pages for the Miami Valley Regional. In addition to the official event pages below, you can also find match schedules, rankings, and scores at thebluealliance.com
Qualification Match Schedule/Results
Playoff Match Schedule/Results
Rankings
Awards
On Saturday, the Warlocks had its first scouting meeting. Just as every year our scouts watched a PowerPoint presentation, run by our scouting mentor Adam. After the presentation, the scouts had to take a test to see what they learned from the presentation. In the next few weeks, there will be a second scouting test that is geared toward the game. The scouts will use the information they learn to scout robots at our competitions.
During the week, our CAD team worked on designing the climber and shooter for our robot. They have been working as quickly and efficiently as possible, in order to get parts to the build team. The programmers accomplished a lot throughout the week. They have written the controls for the ro
bot, along with starting to write and test our autonomous code. They have also started to wire the electronics control board, and started programming the color an light sensors. In the shop, the build kids have been assembling the major parts of our robot. During the week they put together the drive train, intake, shooter, climber, and the component of our robot that will allow us to hold multiple power cells at a time.
Over the week, the PR team has submitted Chairman’s and has started to create this years video for the award.
This past week the sub-teams having been working on multiple different things. In the shop, the build team has been building as many parts of the robot as they can. On Friday, the base for this years robot came in. Ian, the head of Build took two freshman to rivet the base.
The CAD team has been developing a shooter for our robot. They also have been finalizing the sub-components.
Throughout the week, the Web team has been continuing to update our website in order to keep our readers updated. The PR team worked on the Chairman’s award. They worked on the short answer questions, along with this years essay.
The Warlocks are hoping to hand off the robot to the programmers and soon as they possibly can!
During Week 2, the team has accomplished a lot. The build team has begun finalizing our prototype designs, while also starting to build the small pieces of this years robot. Mentors and students have been working together well to ensure that our robot will be the best robot we can make.
The CAD team led by Katie has built, and is in the process of finishing the CAD design of the robot. In the next few weeks, the team will be working towards a finished robot to hand off to programmers. But before that, the CAD team will continue working hard to get a final design to our build team. We hope that this years robot will be better than last years robot.
The mentors have been helping students throughout the beginning weeks with anything that the students need.
Throughout the first week, the Warlocks have been testing different ideas to decide what functions we want our robot to have. The build team has been working hard building and testing some of the different aspects that we could incorporate into our robot. They have also starting to build a few of the field elements for our makeshift field.
Although some CAD students are still learning the ins and outs of CAD, they have also started to design some different bases for this years robot. In the first week the programmers have been training the new students. They have also been testing out a new drive base.
We look forward to the next few weeks of build season and the competition that we will face at our regionals. We wish all teams the best of luck as they begin to build their robots for the season. We’ll see you all at the competitions!
On Saturday January 4th, the Warlocks kicked off the 2020 season with the game Infinite Recharge. Missed the kickoff? Watch the game animation here!
We’re excited to begin brainstorming ideas for our newest robot! During the kickoff event, the team was broken up into smaller groups and we went through a variety of scenarios, such as the Dream Team, Win in Auto, and Play the Game, to determine the best functions for our robot. Each group had time to work out the scenario specific to their group and then they reported back to the rest of the group. At the end of the day, the team gathered in the gym to watch a group of students “play” the game.
On Sunday, the team met at MAHLE to continue brainstorming ideas. By the end of the meeting, we determined what functions we believe are absolutely necessary to make our robot function smoothly.
As Week 1 begins, the students will continue brainstorming until we figure out the design we are going to pursue. Check back in on this section of the website during the season to see how the team progresses through build season and competitions.
The Warlocks will be competing at the Buckeye Regional in Cleveland, Ohio from March 28 – 30, 2019. This is the second regional of our two regionals that we will be attending this year, where we will be competing for a place at the World Championships in Detroit. Below you can find everything you need to follow The Warlocks as we compete for a spot at the World Championships in the Buckeye Regional.
The Buckeye regional competition is located in Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center. The address of the venue is listed below. Our Itinerary for the trip and any other important info will be posted soon.
CSU Wolstein Center
2000 Prospect Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
March 30 – April 1, 2017
The webcast for the Buckeye Regional will be available on the Blue Alliance, along with several other community run sites for aggregating webcasts for all official FRC Events. We recommend using the blue alliance, as they are typically the most reliable.
Unfortunately, FIRST doesn’t have a standardized method of webcasting their events, which leaves each individual event responsible for running and maintaining their own webcast. It is possible that the community run webcast could experience lag and/or technical difficulties throughout the competition weekend.
Below is a direct link to GameDay, which is the name of The Blue Alliance’s webcast portal. To watch the Buckeye Regional, hover over the webcasts link in the top left and drag “” into one of the viewing panes below.
There are many different sources for match schedules and results, but the only official source is from FIRST themselves. Below are links to the official FIRST event result pages for the Buckeye Regional. In addition to the official event pages below, you can also find match schedules, rankings, and scores at thebluealliance.com
Qualification Match Schedule/Results
Playoff Match Schedule/Results
Rankings
Awards