It is Thursday morning, what are you up to?
Watch us compete here: WORLDS

It is that World Championship time of year again in the FIRST Robotics space!  The Greece Gladiators Team 1591 has, again, double qualified to attend, and the team is ecstatic. 

The students on the team have been working in overdrive speed to update the robot for the competition and make upgrades to the damages caused at Tech Valley and Finger Lakes (lots of damage this year to robots across all competitions... the field design, game and other factors have caused a lot of damage to the robots and the field itself).

Travel and repairs are costly, so we have started a GoFundMe, we would appreciate any amount you can donate or please share across your social media to help get the word out.

All of the teams that qualify for Worlds are all top quality teams and robots from across the world. There are many awards that can be earned or won at local competitions such as The Woody Flowers award, won by our coach in 2023 and the Excellence in Engineering Award earned this year at Tech Valley by our team, the Greece Gladiators. Houston will be the best of the best in FIRST competition this season.

Once we learn which competition field we will be on, and our schedule, it will be posted here so you can watch us compete.

For the 2nd year in a row, the Greece Gladiators, Team 1591, has qualified for the FIRST Championship in Houston, Texas.
The travel and expenses to bring just a portion of the team (enough skills and experience to compete), is upwards of $30,000.
We have started a GoFundMe to help pay for the students and the mentors to get to Houston and compete with Halo, our 2024 Robot. Any donation is appreciated, every little bit will help the team to achieve the goal of World Robot Domination. 

The second weekend in a row, team 1591 was off to the MVP Arena in Albany for the Tech Valley Regional competition. A new batch of teams to compete with and against, along with many teams we saw at RIT.
A more experienced team and robot was put to the test over and over again. Ending Friday with a 5-2 record and a robot needing some repairs after a hard hit in our last match of the day.
Saturday started with 2 wins on the field, but no worries in the pit. Team spirit was high and running strong. We finished ranked 2nd, but was the 1st overall pick by the #1 ranked team, the RoboTigers, 1796, from Queens, New York. Together, the alliance along with Team 3181 - Pittsford Panthers and Team 9624 - Dynamiques from Longueuil, Québec, Canada rushed to the finals, undefeated. Won finals match 1, lost finals match 2 to force a deciding game 3... winner take all.
Additionally, the team was awarded the prestigious Excellence in Engineering Award, something that was no easy task with so many tremendous robots in the field.
In the end, the Alliance won match 3 to take the Albany Tech Valley Regional to the winners circle.  It was an amazing and stressful final!

The weekend started with Thursday practice rounds and acclimating the drive team and the robot to the RIT competition field.
Once the qualifying rounds began Friday morning, it was game on. We ended Friday with a 7-0 record, the most wins by any team.
Saturday, the final day of qualifiers and then the playoffs, was a little bit bumpy, but we ended the qualifying round ranked 10th. The #1 ranked team, 27 Rush from Clarkson MI selected us first in selections and the rest they say is history.  For their 2nd pick, 27 selected team 578 Fairport Robotics to complete the alliance.
The alliance was able to go undefeated in the Playoffs and capture the Finger Lakes Regional championship.

Today are the practice rounds, but these are as important to the team as the finals. Every match is more knowledge and experience for every member of the team... from mechanical to scouting... and building a STEM foundation in these students and likely mapping their future career choices.
Please be sure to check us out starting at noon today (Thursday, March 14th, Pi Day) for practice day, where Halo will be seen in actual competition mode:
https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires9 (the link shows 2020, but it is correct and will be active by 1pm today/Thursday)

With a new location for the 2023 there was a renewed spirit for an amazing event and a final event for 2 Chainz before the 2024 Crescendo Kickoff coming up in January 2024.

Loading in at Nazareth University's Golisano Training Center on Saturday, October 21st, turning into the things dreams are made of.  The team was  able to win the event along with  running the robot with an all-Girls Team, and ab all-Boys Team and  still able to maintain a ranking close to the top for the entire event.

Congratulations to a well oiled team of FIRST students who came together as one solid unit of students, alumni, mentors and coaches!  

Thank you to all who were able to attend, participate and support Team 1591!