Image Courtesy Al Gritzmacher

The Warlocks recently participated in the Rochester Ruckus, an annual off-season rally that uses last year's robots and game to let new team members see what a FIRST robotics is like.

This year we traveled to Webster Spry Middle School for the event. We let all the students who wanted to drive the robot drive in at least one match. We didn't perform as well, but had a good time.

We hope all the students learned a little and whetted their appetite for the real competitions coming later.

Image Courtesy FIRST

The FIRST Kickoff on January 8th marks the beginning of the design and build season. The kickoff will be broadcast live over NASA's Television Channel from 10:30 - 12:00. Towards the end of the broadcast, Dean Kamen will reveal the 2011 game to the entire world.

The Warlocks will be watching the kickoff live in the LHS Technology wing on January 8th. It is mandatory that all team members attend this kickoff event. We will watch the NASA broadcast from 10:30 to 12:00. Afterwards we will have lunch, Receive and inspect the 2011 kit of parts, and brainstorm ideas for our 2011 robot.

The NASA broadcast will be visible to anyone having DirecTV (channel 289) or Dish network (channel 212). It is also possible that LCTV will be broadcasting the kickoff on one of their stations as well. If LCTV is not able to re-aim their NASA satellite in time for the kickoff, the Web team has set up a NASA TV feed on our website. You can view this feed here.

Image Courtesy FIRST

Jan 8, 2011 - The 2011 FRC Competition has been released. FIRST Logomotion is the 20th anneversary of the FIRST robotics competition. The game animation can be seen here. The Game manual can be found here. Good Luck Teams!

Image Courtesy FIRST

Image Courtesy Stephen Yoder

The Warlocks will be attending the seventh-annual Rochester Rally held at Penfield High School. Local teams are allowed to attend this pre-ship event to test out their robots and get feedback from other teams. A full field will be provided for an accurate game simulation. This event will be held on Sunday the 20st and will run from 10 AM to 4 PM. Departure, arrival, and return times will be posted soon.

The Warlocks were interviewed by WKBW Tuesday morning in preparation for competition in March. The clip here was featured on Buffalo's WKBW channel 7 Tuesday night just before the robot was shipped. The Warlocks were also preparing for the competition at the Kenan Center Sunday, Monday and Tuesday fitting in some last minute modifications and drive practice for competition.

The Warlocks were also featured on WGRZ on tuesday. You can view this video on our teams Vimeo Channel.

The Warlocks have returned home from the Pittsburgh Regional. The Warlocks came home with several awards including a silver medal for second place overall. We have also won the best Website Award, Coopertition Award, And the Best Minibot Award. The Warlocks are all looking forward to competing at the world finals in St. Louis next month.