Flagship 3140 has grown to 35 for ’25
This year’s theme, Reefscape, presented by Haas, offers a marine vibe and was designed from a 2021 Game Design Challenge finalist concept, according to the kickoff video presentation.
Farragut High School’s Flagship 3140, led by team captain Arslan Oguz, has about 35 members.
“I’m pretty optimistic,” FHS lead mentor Eric Manneschmidt said. “They have a good plan. They’ve been working very, very diligently.
“We’ve had to cut back our hours this year,” he added. “We spent so many hours last year. We needed more break time for the students … hopefully the time we do spend will be more productive.”
This season’s first competitino is Rocket City Regional in Huntsville, Alabama, March 12-15. The second competition) will be the Smoky Mountain Regional.
“It’s been at the Knoxville Coliseum the past couple years; this year it’s going to be April 2 through April 5, at the Sevierville Convention Center,” Manneschmidt said. “Any team that wins a regional qualifies to go to world (championship competition) in April 13-16 in Houston.
“That’s where the championships will be for all FIRST teams: FIRST Lego League, FIRST Tech Challenge (and) FIRST Robotics (high-school level),” he added.
About Oguz, “He’s been a driver for a couple years and was assisting and doing some of the coaching last year,” Manneschmidt said.
“It’s an honor,” Oguz said about being chosen captain. “I’ve been on the team since I’ve been a freshman, and being able to see the team come back, recover from the pandemic and all the lock-downs and see it become this large (35 members), we’ve come through a lot since then. ...”
The task this year is “two alliances of three teams each compete to earn points by harvesting algae (placing green balls in nets), seeding coral (white PVC pieces) on their reef and returning to their barge to ascend to the ocean’s surface (hooking up to a cage, which will be raised),” the presentation stated. “Alliances earn additional rewards for meeting specific scoring thresholds. ...”
Before the match, teams can choose to hang a shallow cage or a deep cage on the team’s barge. Robots start each match at their starting line and may be pre-loaded with one coral.
“The alliance that wins the most points overall wins the match,” the release further stated.
Manneschmidt said more team information is available at thebluealliance.com
