Stakes were high at the FTC Robotics State Championship on Sunday, March 8. The MacDuffie Robotics Team was competing for a spot in the world championship of robotics against 100 other schools.

Teams build their own robots with the goal of stacking as many stones on top of each other as possible. The Mechanical Mustangs came up with a simple but effective design for their robot: a metal arm that would grip the stones and lift them up using motorized chain pulleys.

After the state championship, a combined total of eight teams moved on to the world championship. The top four teams that scored highest in the tournament were guaranteed a spot and then each chose another team to be their ally. Despite finishing 9th in the tournament, the Mechanical Mustangs were not chosen and did not proceed to the world championship.

After the tournament, a member of Canton Robodogs, a team MacDuffie allied with, said, “it was really a surprise to see how well [MacDuffie] did in the match because [MacDuffie] isn’t that famous in FTC.” 

Senior Andrew Cao, the captain of the MacDuffie Robotics Team, said that even though it is his last season, “the past two years with the robotics team have been fun,” and, “finishing top 10 in FTC… is an accomplishment in itself.” He hopes that his junior team members continue building in the next season.