This Saturday, the kickoff finally started! Now that we know the topic of the challenge, the team is pumped to start the build season!
F.R.C.2017 teaser video pizza party.
Our team has been waiting for this moment since last years season ended. We came together with pizza and other snacks of course to do a special viewing of the 2017 teaser video! Did I mention pizza was involved? Very serious team meeting.
Lego Robots Summer Camp!
The SubZero team is thrilled to announce our Lego Robot summer camp is finally happening! It gives students opportunities to learn and engage what the Lego robots are capable for. The students objective is to program their robot just right to make it go over various obstacles.
Season Conclusion
This season has been such an exciting time for everyone on the team. Our growth from this season to the last has been truly remarkable.
We have had an amazing build season this year. We began at first sharing ideas, collaborating with other teams, and analyzing this year’s game. Juggling many different ideas from team members, we finally came to a consensus on our robot design. We had many new experiences this year. This ranged from building bumpers, to reaching out to sponsors in order to have a sustainable build season – something we had to be less focused on last year due to working on simple robot design. With mentor knowledge, many late nights, and student dedication, we were able to produce a robot we thought would best fit the game requirements. That is exactly what we did.
Our competition season started off on March 3rd-5th at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center (DECC) for the Lake Superior Regional. Competition qualification matches started off looking up. We juggled between first, second, and third place during the second day of the regional, finishing the day in 1st place out of 63 teams. At the end of the three day regional we received the Industrial Design Award that celebrates form and function in an efficiently designed machine that effectively addresses the game challenge. We also ended the challenging three day competition as finalists with a record of 11-5-0. With being finalists, we were offered the opportunity to attend the FIRST Championships in St. Louis, Missouri on April 27th-30th at the Edward Jones Dome.
Being able to meet and work with teams from many countries all over the world was a fantastic experience for everyone on the team. We began qualification matches with motor trouble on the left side of our robot. After an hour of work from the build team, we were able to get B.A.R.D. (our robot name) back in commission. Later in the competition, we broke a shaft for the jointed arm due to friction. After these issues, we were back in shape. We finished the Championships in 38th out of 75 teams with a record of 5-5-0.
We were also able to attend the Minnesota State High School League Competition on May 20th and 21st at the Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis. We had to make minor adjustments to the arm and shooter similar to the Championship tournament. At the end of the day, we finished with a record of 3-5-0 in 19th place. We were very excited to participate in this tournament as one of the top 30 teams in Minnesota invited to compete. Minnesota has 208 First Robotics teams as of the 2016 season.
We would like to thank all our sponsors, coaches, mentors, parents, and finally all the students for making this year the success it has become.
Championship Match Schedule

Championships – St. Louis
Please check our Facebook page for the most recent updates from our team. The Facebook page is titled “Esko SubZero Robotics Team 5690.”
Our qualification matches will begin promptly at 9:19am tomorrow and we encourage you to stream our match. You can find the Galileo division live stream here: http://www.firstchampionship.org/watch-FRC-live
Championship Divisions
The divisions have been released for the Championship competition this Wednesday through Saturday. SubZero is placed in the Galileo Division. Check out all the teams playing on our field here! http://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2016gal
We are so excited to be attending this event as one of the 634 FRC Teams. We are already in the process of scouting other teams we will be competing with and against. We will post more as we journey to St. Louis along with match scores and live feeds for our followers to watch come Wednesday.
Chili Feed Update
SubZero on WKLK Radio
On Saturday, March 2nd, SubZero had the opportunity to be live on WKLK 1230 AM and 96.5 FM to talk about our 2016 season. We also had the opportunity to promote our gofundme.com page along with our fundraiser for the FIRST Championships on April 7th. This was an excellent experience to us. Thank you to Dwight Cadwell at WKLK for inviting us to his Coaches Corner morning show.
We invite all of you to come in and join us for our fundraiser at the Esko High School cafeteria from 5:00 to 7:00pm this Thursday. We will have chili, drinks, desserts, and activities for students and children. Come and see our pit and slideshows from this great season. We hope to see you all there!
SubZero Fundraiser
