MTA’s Lionotics robotics team continued their dominant winning streak at last week’s First Tech Challenge robotics event. At the last event, their impressive performance granted them a highly competitive slot at the next level of the competition, called “super qualifiers.” These super qualifiers advance teams to the New York City championship, and therefore are highly competitive among the best teams in New York City. The competition featured many top public and private schools from across the city that had all qualified at their previous events, and despite that, Lionotics stood out for their impressive design and execution.

In their qualification matches, MTA’s Lionotics team placed second out of the 30 competing teams, thanks to their impressive, fast and consistent robot that was able to win its matches. Following the qualification matches, the team joined up with two carefully selected teammates into the semi-finals, where they were able to edge out the third seat alliance to advance to the final round. After three intense matches, the robot unfortunately had a mechanical issue and lost the last match of the finals, leaving the team just short of winning the whole event. Their last match was especially impressive; despite the mechanical issues. Lionotics was even able to achieve a score that would have been the highest score for the entire New York City and Long Island, but their fierce opponents scored an even higher score than theirs, setting a new record.

In addition to their impressive robot performance, the MTA Lionotics team had the opportunity to present their creations to judges, earning recognition for their exceptional work. They were awarded the “Innovate” award; an award given to a team with a unique functioning element to their robot. Lionotics was awarded this for their innovative un-powered roller for transferring game elements, a solution they arrived at after over six other designs were built and deemed not ready for competition use. Despite their setback in finals matches, their impressive performance both on the field and presenting to judges earned the team a greatly desired seat at the New York City championship event, scheduled to take place in March. The team—now ranked top 5% in New York City—is excited and working hard to prepare for the New York City championship.

By Pinchas Rosenfeld, MTA senior and Lionotics Software Captain