The new season of robotics is here, and with it brings many new and familiar challenges to the Cary-Grove robotics team. This year’s overall theme for all levels of robotics is archaeology, with the FIRST® Tech Challenge being Decode®, where the main component of scoring is picking up the game pieces (called artifacts) and scoring them in sequential order to accumulate both team points and ranking points.

The outlook on this year’s game has brought CG’s “Code Blue” robotics team both confusion and excitement to see what they and other teams can cook up for this season’s competition.

“The overall concept for the game design is interesting, and the scoring system, from what I can tell, is pretty unique compared to past seasons” said junior Code Blue member Ava Ramage. “With this change, it’ll be quite interesting to see the designs that other teams come up with in order to score.”

The season brings out the best in CG’s team, both in terms of competitiveness and their willingness to meet with other teams to share the spirit of FIRST.

“I feel like we’re going to have an exciting game this year,” junior Code Blue member Lee Marin said. “I cannot wait to meet the other FIRST teams and come together to play strong! I think the Cary-Grove Code Blue team will have some trouble at the beginning, but as we learn and grow as a team, I know we can improve. Regardless of our performance in the competition, I know I will have so much fun working with my teammates and other teams.”

This year’s game seems like it’s going to be one that both alumni of FIRST and new competitors will remember for ages, and The Trojan Times will share more as the season progresses. In the meantime, if you want to know more about the FIRST challenge, you can watch their kickoff video here.