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HOUSTON — Cyber Tribe, the Dobyns-Bennett High School robotics team, just had its best overall season performance in 11 years of existence and made the quarterfinals of the world competition.
The Cyber Tribe participated in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) World Championships in Houston April 28-30. FIRST is an acronym for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.
The D-B squad made the quarterfinals in an alliance with two other teams but fell to the top-ranked alliance in two successive rounds.
After two days of qualification matches, the Cyber Tribe was the 17th of 32 teams selected for the playoffs within the 76-team Roebling Division at Championships, according to Angela Conrad, Project Lead the Way engineering teacher and FIRST Robotics Coach at D-B.
“The selection put Cyber Tribe on the eighth-ranked playoff alliance, which had the unfortunate task of playing the first-ranked alliance in the quarterfinals,” Conrad said. “Cyber Tribe, with teammates from Michigan and Minnesota, battled strongly in the Roebling quarterfinals against their top-ranked opponents from Texas, Michigan, and South Carolina.
“In a remarkable performance, they outscored the first-ranked alliance in the first quarterfinal match, but narrowly lost the match when penalty points were assessed. They were not able to pull off the upset in the second quarterfinal match either and were eliminated at that level.”
However, Conrad said the playoff run at the divisional level of the championships capped off the most successful season for the Cyber Tribe in its 11 years of existence.
The team qualified for the championships by being the captain of the first-ranked and winning alliance at the Electric City Regional in Anderson, South Carolina, held March 10-12. It was the first selection of the second-ranked alliance at the Smoky Mountains Regional in Knoxville held March 31–April 2, but was eliminated in the semifinals. The team was forced to retire because of a break in the robot’s control network that could not be repaired between matches.
Overall, Conrad said, the Cyber Tribe finished the season ranked 108th in the world in maximum Offensive Power Rating and 121st in the world in maximum Elo rating out of the 3,053 active teams in the FIRST Robotics Competition during 2022.
“They were one of only three Tennessee teams to qualify for the World Championships, and the only one of the three that made it to the playoffs,” Conrad said.
“They currently have the highest Offensive Power Rating and Elo rating of any Tennessee FRC teams,” she said. “Robotics at the FRC level is very expensive and Cyber Tribe could not compete without the generous support of our many sponsors.”
She said organizations providing support with money, materials or other donations include Eastman Foundation, Marsh Living Trust, Dobyns-Bennett High School, Kingsport City Schools, Eastman Credit Union, Ballad Health, Kiwanis International, Cardinal FG, MiniFibers, Appalachian Power and Energy Systems Group, as well as others Conrad said “we truly appreciate.”
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