What a regional! The Rebels did an excellent job at this regional, both on and off the field. Learning from their mistakes at the Smoky Mountain regional, the Rebels decided to stick to their strategy of “only doing what the robot was designed to do.” This ended up working very well. On the first day, the Rebels played superbly. They were extremely efficient in loading the Power Cubes into the Exchange and keeping their Switch. After winning most of their matches, the Rebels finished in the 7th seed for the day.

On the second day, the Rebels continued to play well, but ended up placing in the 12th seed. Despite this, the Rebels had obviously shown the alliance captains how amazing their robot was — they got picked by the #2 SEED!!!! The Rebels and their alliance were able to make it all the way to the Finals, almost undefeated. However, after two close matches, they lost to a strong alliance.

Aside from the robot, the Rebels won two prestigious awards. Just like at Smoky Mountain, they won the Business and Entrepreneurship Award. In addition, the Rebels erupted into cheer as one of their mentors, Mr. Corrigan, was announced the winner of the 2018 Woodie Flowers Award! This was a big surprise for the team: now two of their mentors are winners of this prestigious and honorary award. However, an even bigger surprise was coming up for the Rebels, and they were not expecting it....

WILDCARD!!!! Two Wildcards were generated at the Regional, and since the Rebels made it to the finals and were first pick by their alliance captain, they ended up winning the second Wildcard! This means that they have a ticket to the Championship! But wait, there’s more: Zebra Technologies was extremely generous, and decided to pay the Wildcard winners’ entrance fee to the Championships! We honestly cannot thank them enough for this!

This regional was spectacular in every aspect, and a great experience for everyone. From our great robots to our exemplary leadership in safety to our cross-continental outreach, Team 2638 is truly changing the culture, one nut and bolt at a time.