Worlds Recap!
Read to see how Stryke Force performed at the 2026 FIRST FRC World Championship!
Isabel S.
Our time at the FIRST World Championship was nothing short of an amazing experience! Thank you to all of the sponsors for supporting our program so we get the opportunity to keep thinking big. Also we thank all of the many volunteers that help make the event possible because we wouldn’t be able to compete without them.
For context about the World Championships, it runs a little differently than both the district and state level of competition. At Worlds, there are 8 different fields, or divisions, where there are about 75 teams on each. Each division emerges with one winning alliance, and then face each other on the final field to crown the World Champion, which is also known as “Einsteins.” This year, Stryke Force was in the Archimedes Division.
Thursday was the first day of qualification matches. We ended up playing five out of our total ten qualification matches, where we only lost one match. At the end of the night, some of our students took the opportunity to go to RoboProm, which is an event run by Team 399 where they host a “prom” like event. Thank you to them for hosting such a fun event for the students to enjoy.
Friday was the second day of qualification matches. We played our final five qualifications, losing two and winning three. At the end of the day we were rank 11, going into alliance selection.
That night, we gathered around for a scouting meeting to plan for Saturday’s alliance selection process. This is where we "mock drafted" the potential picks of the teams that were ranked ahead of us, to help us plan what teams would be available if we were in a place to be an alliance captain.
Then came Saturday. The day where alliance selection, field elimination matches, and “Einsteins” go down, also known as when each division winning alliance plays against one another. We were very grateful to be named the captain of Alliance 8, where we picked Team 2539 Krypton Cougars, Team 2583 Orange Dynamite, and Team 103 Cybersonics to join our flight crew. The next event on the checklist was the elimination matches on our field. Unfortunately, we ended up losing in two straight matches, ending our run at the World Championships.
However, on the bright side, this competition presented a lot of opportunities for team bonding! After our alliance was eliminated, we went back to the hotel and watched the rest of the competition on the livestream. It was a great opportunity to wind down and have fun together as a team, and these moments truly capture what it felt like to be involved with this tightly-knit team this past season.
Sponsors, thank you again for helping us achieve a great season, and spectators, thank you for following along on our journey this past season!
Stay tuned on our social media pages for our open houses. This is an opportunity to get involved in our robotics program, where we offer opportunities for kids entering 5th grade in the fall all the way to senior year. We hope to see you there.
But, our season isn’t quite over yet… be on the lookout for the offseason competitions where compete at the Indiana Robotics Invitational, and as always… GO STRYKE FORCE!
