It is with great pride that I write to let you know that the Bedford High School Robotics Team, The Bedford Express FIRST Robotics Team 1023, won the Indiana Robotics Invitational (IRI) this weekend.  IRI is a highly competitive offseason event, where only the top teams in the world are invited to attend.  

Bedford had a rough start with two mechanical failures in the first two matches.  This landed us in last place out of 67 teams.  The team worked hard through seeding matches to climb back up to 33rd rank at the end of seeding matches.  Though our ranking was low, our performance was not.  We scored a personal competition best of placing 4 stacks of 6 totes, each topped with a recycling container.  In previous events, three was the maximum we had accomplished.  Repeating this accomplishment caught the eye of top ranked teams.  We were one of 3 teams that were able to make 4 stacks, and the only one that was doing it consistently.  

During alliance selections, the #2 ranked team, OP Robotics, from Ontario, Canada selected us as their first pick.  Being the second team picked out of 67 teams in attendance was a great feeling.  Though we started with a couple of rough matches, the scouters saw our reliable and repeatable performance for the rest of the event.  Together we picked team SWAT from Smithville, MO as our third partner and Talon Robotics, from Eden Prairie, MN as our fourth partner.  

In match one of the quarter finals, our alliance struggled.  Our autonomous did not work, and our alliance partner set 2 stacks down on top of their tether, disqualifying those stacks.  Our score was lower than we hoped, landing us in 4th.  We rebounded on our 2nd quarter-final match and set a tournament and world record of 343 points.  This moved us to third and we advanced to Semi-finals.  

From that point on, it was smooth sailing for this alliance, and team work was essential in staying #1 for the rest of the tournament.  Each team fought for the best performances, while dodging each other, and the stacks so that none got knocked over.  We advanced to finals in the #1 spot.  

Bedford Express continued the year long streak of never losing a finals match!  We were matched against the #3 alliance, which contained the captain of the world champion team.  In the first finals match, it looked to be a close battle until Alliance #3 knocked over one of their stacks.  We won by a score of 336 - 299.  We knew we would have to up that score to win the next.  Each team on both alliances fought for every point possible.  The match ended too close to call, and the refs took their time counting each playing piece.  The refs announced there was a 6 point penalty on the #3 alliance.  They posted the scores and in the final match we were able to increase our world record!  Together our scores made the highest alliance score in the world as well.  The final score was 345 - 338.  We won by 8 points!  

This is the first time Bedford has won the IRI competition, finishing as finalists in 2012.  It was extra special beating the alliance containing the world champion.  

Bedford Express has been busy preparing for this tournament this summer.  They will continue to meet throughout the summer to prepare for the summer camp they host for K-12th graders interested in learning about robotics.  Summer camp will be Aug 10 - 14.  More information and registration is available on www.bedfordrobotics.org. 

Another exciting opportunity has been extended to the team.  We will be working with Trapped Toledo to create some robotic improvements on their trapped rooms. We will be presenting them with our ideas on Wednesday.  They have a list of projects for us to improve for them.  We are looking forward to using our robotics skills in a real life atmosphere.