NORTH BRUNSWICK – North Brunswick Township High School’s robotics team, FRC Team 25-Raider Robotix, is celebrating 25 years of competition in FIRST Robotics this season.
The team was founded in 1996 at the high school and in its career has been a two-time world champion during the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition (FRC) in 2000 and 2012.
In addition to the World Championship victories, Raider Robotix has earned many banners and awards in local and regional competitions during the last quarter century.
During Raider Robotix’s first competition of the 2022 season, the team competed at the FIRST Mid-Atlantic (FMA) robotics event held at Bridgewater-Raritan Regional High School March 5 and 6. The team was pitted against 35 other robotics teams from New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the FMA region.
Team 25 finished qualifying rounds ranked as the No. 3 seeded team.
For the semi-finals, the No. 2 seeded team, Watchung Hills Regional High School’s FRC Team 41-RoboWarriors, selected Raider Robotix as an alliance partner to form Alliance No. 2. Teams 41 and 25 then selected FRC Team 4285-Camo-Bots (Honesdale High School and Western Wayne High School, Pennsylvania) to complete their alliance to play against the seven other alliances in the semi-finals.
Alliance No. 2 emerged from the semi-finals to face Alliance No. 4, which was composed of Team Captain FRC Team 75-RoboRaiders (Hillsborough High School), FRC Team 3142-Aperture (Newtown High School) and FRC Team 2577-Pingry Robotics (Basking Ridge High School), in the finals.
Alliance No. 4 defeated Alliance No. 2 in the first Finals match by a score of 68 to 50.
Team 4285’s robot was disabled during competition, so FRC Team 6897-Astraea Robotics (East Brunswick High School) replaced Team 4285 in Alliance No. 2.
In Match 2 of the finals, Alliance No. 4 won by just one point, 44 to 43, and they emerged as the winners of the event, while the teams in Alliance No. 2 were declared the finalists.
The next scheduled FMA event for Raider Robotix – FRC Team 25 will be April 2 and 3 at Montgomery High School. It is anticipated that if Team 25 qualifies, the team will travel to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania to compete in the FIRST Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships April 6-9.
Due to COVID concerns, all FIRST competitions are closed to the public and spectators, but the robotics events can be viewed live or recorded online at https://thebluealliance.com.