Our team spent all day touring BAE Systems Land and Armament yesterday! It was an honor to be there to give a presentation about FIRST and to thank them for their ongoing support. We saw several production lines, the materials testing and innovation lab, had our picture taken with a tank, and watched tanks driving on the test track (official photos coming soon). We are very THANKFUL to have such awesome sponsors! 

TechFire was happy to lend a hand at the first annual York Area FLL Scrimmage held at York Country Day School this past weekend. TechFire students and mentors had a great time volunteering and were also grateful for an opportunity to show-off our 2013 robot and talk about FRC to an energetic group of elementary and middle school students.  In addition, we had a very successful day of fundraising and sold lots of goodies, jewerly, and buttons.

We were excited to meet so many new and enthusiastic FLL teams in our area and look forward to seeing these young engineers on TechFire in the coming years.

A very special thanks to TechFire mentor, Amy Harmon Krtanjek and YCDS science teacher, Elizabeth Charleston, for organizing this day of fun and leaning.  Best of luck to all the FLL teams this coming season!

Click here to learn more about this year's FLL game, Nature's Fury.  Score sheet, courtesy of TechFire, can be found here. 

Congrats to TechFire for finishing up the very last competition of the 2013 Ultimate Ascent season with a huge win at Ramp Riot this past weekend!  It was truly an honor to compete alongside some of the best teams in FIRST for our 10th and final competition with our bot, Tyrannosaucer Rex.  Despite a bit of trouble with jamming early on, Team 225  finished #1 seed after the qualification rounds.  

Many thanks to our alliance partners, Teams 341 Miss Daisy, 304 GWHS Robo Griffins, and 4637 BambieBotz for a strong and very exciting performance in the elimination rounds.  Also, a very special thanks goes out to Team 341 Miss Daisy for not only hosting an incredibly well-run event, but also for helping us finish our season the same way we started, winning a championship together!

Official Results:

* Ramp Riot Champions: 225, 341, 304, 4637
* Ramp Riot Finalists: 2016, 3314, 369, 1923
* Mike Wade Memorial Award: Team 365 (681 Food Cans)
* 1,282 food cans donated to Mattie Dixon Community Cupboard

* Gracious Professionalism Award: Team 1676
* Spirit Of Ramp Riot: Team 1403
* Number 1 Seed: Team 225
* Judges Award: Team 4575

Complete Elimination Results:
1. 225, 341, 304, 4637 W
2. 1676, 222, 2607, 224 QF
3. 1168, 272, 1712, 3929 QF
4. 1640, 1626, 2539, 708 QF
5. 2729, 11, 1403, 834 SF
6. 1218, 4575, 484, 4281 SF
7. 2016, 3314, 369, 1923 F
8. 365, 316, 869, 423 QF

Team 225 will head back to the shop next week where Tyrannosaucer Rex will be placed in the TechFire Robot Hall of Fame. We have lots of community service and outreach planned in the next few months and then.....bring on the 2014 FRC Kick-Off--we are ready for a new challenge!