Parker Robotics Wins 1st Place Design at State Tournament

This weekend, Parker’s own FTC Robotics team #3507 Robotheosis competed at the Illinois FTC State Championship. After being the winning alliance captain and taking home the prestigious Inspire award at the Chicago League tournament earlier this year, #3507 qualified for the state tournament for the third year in a row.

The competition was held at Elgin Community College and featured 28 qualifying matches followed by a double elimination bracket and a best of three final. #3507’s drive team consisted of Judah Solomon (Driver), Nash Oliphant (Operator), Spencer Koh (Coach) and Ellis Brown (Human Player). During qualification matches, #3507 won valuable victories against teams like Totus 1 Tuus (Finalist Alliance Partner), Golden Ratio (1st place Inspire Award Winner) and Whabam from Bennett Day School in Chicago. #3507 finished qualification matches with a 4-1 record, the highest qualifying record the team has seen in three years. For the playoffs, #3507 selected JCP Danger Chickens (Jones College Prep) as its alliance partner. The joint Chicago alliance fought hard and gained two victories before eventually falling in a rematch with Totus 1 Tuus and Stealth Robotics. With a final record of 6-3, #3507 was then eliminated from the Robot portion of the competition.

Through strong interviews with the Judges beforehand, as well as a strong engineering portfolio, #3507 was able to win the 1st place Design Award for the first time in program history! Previously, #3507 was only able to win 2nd place design at state during the 2022–23 season. The design team, led by grade level Shade Rothkopf, worked tremendously hard throughout the season to design a robot that Parker should be very proud of!

Enjoy photos from the tournament as well as photos of our wonderful robot here!