The secret’s in the strategy: advice from Blackout Robotics

During the 2023-24 CENTERSTAGE season, the incredible Blackout Robotics topped the division rankings and captained the Winning Alliance at the UK Championships. Every member of their team had two years of experience competing in FIRST Tech Challenge UK, and now they’re sharing the wisdom that got them to the top.

Team unleashed 

Team name: Blackout Robotics

Team number: UK-235, 19280

School: The American School in London

Hub region: South East

Our team believes that hard work will lead to success and achievement. For two years in a row, this has proven to be true, as, during the 2022-23 POWERPLAY season, our team made it to the division finals and won the National Inspire Award. In the 2023-24 CENTERSTAGE season, we were the captains of the Winning Alliance at the UK Champs and won the National Connect Award. 

Game strategy

For our qualification matches, our team’s focus was simple: try to win all of our matches. While easier said than done, this would secure us the top ranking in our division, meaning we could choose the alliance we knew would best complement our robot. To win the qualification matches, our team focused on using both robots’ strengths. This meant we adapted our strategy and worked with the other team to ensure both robots were working to the best of their abilities to maximise our points. 

Once we secured our position in the division, we turned our attention to finding a perfect alliance partner. We determined this from the scouting data we had collected during the day, such as the number of pixels scored or if a team’s robot climb was consistent in each match. Using this data, we decided upon Norwood Industries and because we decided early in the day, there was a lot of time to strategise with them. 

Blackout Robotics and Norwood Industries at the 2023-24 UK Championships

Together, we decided that during the knockout games, Norwood Industries would focus on placing white pixels, whilst we would focus on the coloured pixels so we could open up possibilities for mosaics.

Additionally, Norwood Industries focused on climbing during the endgame to secure the additional 20 points we knew they could achieve. This strategy worked perfectly throughout the knockout rounds, as we went undefeated until the finals, earning scores as high as 220 points along the way. 

Award-winning wisdom

As two-time regional Inspire Award winners as well as national Inspire Award and national Connect Award winners, we know how important it is to make sure we approach the whole challenge strategically. 

In terms of award strategy, we created a very detailed and engaging Engineering Portfolio. While the presentation to judges is important, having a structured portfolio will prove that you deserve the award through your hard work in all aspects of FIRST Tech Challenge UK. 

Secondly, your judges’ presentation should recap anything you mentioned in your Engineering Portfolio and prioritise your team’s most impressive accomplishments.

Finally, how can you make sure you have a good shot at an award? We won the Connect Award at the 2023-24 UK Championship and found that outreach and impact on your community is one of the most compelling things you can mention to the judges. Outreach and impact can be supporting international and other UK teams, doing community fundraisers, and presenting to other teams. 

Blackout Robotics winning one of their matches

Starting as you mean to go on

Our top tip to help teams get started would be to be aware of robotics in your area. For example, we mentored FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge UK teams, and 3D-printed parts for FIRST Tech Challenge UK teams. We saw that doing both of these things would not only be feasible but also impactful. 

Blackout Robotics’ robot for the 2023-24 CENTERSTAGE season

As always the case with robotics, we have faced hundreds of challenges during the past two seasons. Over time, we came up with a variety of ways to deal with them but the most important thing was always to listen to everyone on the team. Although some team members may not have as much experience as others, that doesn’t mean they can’t come up with an effective solution. A fresh perspective can be really valuable.

A strong team on and off the game field

Additionally, one thing to always remember is to be kind, respectful and fair to your teammates and opponents! If we have learned one thing as a team, it’s that when people do not practise Gracious Professionalism, it has a knock-on effect on productivity, mindset and overall team spirit, which is what makes a robotics team ineffective. 

CENTERSTAGE was our team’s final year, so we will not see you at INTO THE DEEP, but we hope this information can help teams achieve their goals. Good luck!