Preparation for FIRST World Championships

It’s that time of year again— the 2015 FIRST World Championships are almost upon us! We’re going to be the only Texan team competing in the Galileo Division.

Following a rocky start to the season in the Dallas Regional, the team made thorough improvements in both subsystem elements and driver control. After Torque’s last regional, the team traveled to the Johnson Space Center for drive practice with other teams, simulating matches and allowing for priceless drive experience on the field.

After the past seven weeks of competition, we can say with confidence that we have made all of our preparations for the World Championships, from preparing our Engineering Notebook to making necessary adjustments to the robot and our strategy. We hope to have a grand showing in St. Louis and can’t wait to see our fellow teams at competition!

More information about the FIRST Championship event can be found at:

FIRST Championship
Spectator Schedule
Campus Maps

Practice at NASA

Last weekend, members from Texas Torque, Jersey Voltage, Spectrum, and CRyptonite met at the Johnson Space Center, the new facility of FRC Team 118, the Robonauts, to prepare for the next event— the FIRST World Championships.

From morning to night, dedicated members of all teams worked together to simulate the upcoming matches. Through this, all the drivers and operators were able to gain useful and realistic experience on the field. Through the resources and effort provided by all, we were able to benefit greatly from the extra practice. Our main goal was to perfect the can grabbers, and Torque members made great progress in determining the necessary changes to the robot.

Without a doubt, the upcoming week will be spent in further preparation for the FIRST World Championships. Our experiences with other FRC teams were indispensable learning opportunities and have helped us advance significantly. We thank the Robonauts for offering their home field to their fellow teams in the spirit of Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition.

In addition, we are very thankful for all of the time and effort our fellow teams put forth in coming out to practice. (Texas Torque would also like to thank the Robonauts for the can grabber.) We can’t wait to see all these teams and more at FIRST World Championships later this month!

2015 Lone Star Regional

From April 1st to the 4th, Texas Torque competed in the Lone Star Regional, which took place in Houston, Texas. We were very pleased to have been one of the 57 teams from Texas to attend the event.

Qualification rounds began on Friday with two amazing matches by Texas Torque early on, setting the bar high for the top qualification score in the tournament. However, as with any highly competitive event, anything can happen. This was certainly evident in the next few matches, in which Team 1477 suffered a few disappointing losses in average score. All team members were glad to have a few hours of peace that night and took the opportunity to get some rest before the big day ahead.

Our team was chosen in the second round of alliance selection to be a part of the sixth seeded alliance, which was composed of teams 3335, 3556 and ourselves. During the elimination rounds, we had a success in trying out our autonomous mode. Though we were eliminated in the quarterfinals, we were excited to watch other teams compete and learn strategies.

Texas Torque is certainly proud of our second Innovation in Control Award at the Lone Star Regional and is grateful for the opportunity to compete against some of the best teams in FRC. We would like to thank all volunteers for making this such a brilliant event, as well as FIRST in Texas for organizing the competition. We would also like to congratulate team 3478 LamBot for winning the Chairman’s Award, as well as teams 118, 624, and 37287, who are this year’s Lone Star Regional Champions.