Back from the World Championship, The Lightning Blue Lizards traveled again to the United States to compete on the First Robotics Championship, which was held in Houston Texas from April 17th to 20th.

The First Robotics Championship is the highest leveled competition that a FRC team can participate in. There are many teams that have tried to achieve a spot on the Championship for over 10 years and haven’t gotten the chance. The Lightning Blue Lizards were able due to the All Star Rookie award they achieved at the Florida Regional on March 30.

“Having the chance to go there and being able to experience how is like to be a part of the World Championship teams is one of the greatest things I can think of that can happen to a mentor of a robotics team. Winning doesn’t compare to the knowledge you gather working there and being along side of such incredible people,” Julian Zuñiga, Robotics Mentor and TCS teacher, said.

The school team finished ranked 52 in the division known as the Roebling division where there were 67 teams in total. There where teams such as the Robowranglers who are teams that have been participating since the first FRC competition ever held in 1992. For some of the members of the Lightning Blue Lizards, having the chance to meet members from this team was a really life changing experience.

“This is my fourth year participating in FRC, and since I started I only dreamed about one day having the chance to compete at the side of the Robowranglers. This was a dream that become a reality when we were put in the same alliance for a match during the championship. This really was life changing for me because they gave me and the team a lot of advice about the robot and the organization of the team,” Agustin Jaramillo, Robotics Mechanic Leader and TCS Senior, said.

Many team members felt very excited for having a chance to participate aside with so outstanding teams and having the responsibility of representing Colombia as the first Colombian team to ever go to the championships.

“Being this the first time that there is a Colombian team at the Championship, the whole team felt a great sense of responsibility in order to keep the country’s name even higher than what we did in the regional of South Florida. We tried our best and gave everything we could to the team in order to make everyone proud,” Zuñiga said.

Although the results in the matches where 3 matches won from 10, the team is very happy with the development of the championship and the overall work of the team. The organization and the structure of the team convince the judges to award the Lightning Blue Lizards with the Judges Award. This award is given to those who the judges believe they deserve a recognition for their overall work.

“I just hope that next year, the team will be stronger and will be at the level to go back to the championship,” Jaramillo said.