FRC 1002 REBUILT Season Recap

FRC 1002 has made CircuitRunners history with this groundbreaking REBUILT season! From kickoff to Worlds, we've won both of our district events, were finalists at the District Championship, and semifinalists in our division at the World Championship. 2026 has been absolutely phenomenal, and we're excited to carry this momentum into future seasons!

Every season starts off with a collaborative kickoff at Walton High School with Team 2974 Walton Robotics and Team 1261 Robo Lions, where we enthusiastically awaited and watched the game reveal, energizing us for the upcoming season. All teams brainstormed together and explored frameworks for design decision making. CircuitRunners then came back to our own shop to discuss as a team, decide what direction to proceed in, and outline a plan for the upcoming weeks.

Our first competition of the season was the Peachtree District Dalton Event, where we set the event high score of 295, and were ranked second by the end of the qualification matches. We went into playoffs on Alliance 1 with teams 6919 and 5900, winning an event for the first time since 2004! We

also won the Excellence in Engineering Award, honoring our approach to the engineering design process and our seamlessly integrated subsystems. We are so proud of our team and alliance partners, and the momentum at this event continued on through the rest of the season.

After Dalton, we saw the potential in our robot's design, and wanted to innovate further. We challenged ourselves to design and rebuild our shooter in the less than 3 weeks before our next competition. Learning from our past experiences and taking inspiration from other teams, we removed the middle plate separating the two lanes of our shooter, allowing the balls to flow in much faster than before.

Ready to showcase our improvements, our next event was Albany. We set the event high score of 434 in our very first match, ended qualification matches ranked as second, and

were the captain of Alliance 2 with teams 6919 and 6905. Winning this event made

CircuitRunners history once again, winning two events in the same season for the first time ever! We were also awarded the Autonomous Award for performing with exceptional precision and consistency during the autonomous period and other autonomous actions during matches, and qualified for the District Championship!

Less than two weeks later, it was time for the Peachtree District Championship. Ranked third, we were the captain of Alliance 2 with teams 6919 and 3635, set the event high score of 648 in a playoffs match, and ended the event as finalists! We also won the Judges' Award in recognition of our unique outreach efforts, including running robot demonstration events at elementary and middle schools and local museums, hosting FTC and FLL competitions, and working with FTC teams in in Libya, Vietnam, and South Africa. Not only that, but our team qualified for the world championship for the second year in a row!

We had an outstanding run at the FIRST Championship, joining Alliance 5 with teams 190 and 118 and making it to the semifinals of our division! This was an amazing opportunity to interact with the FIRST community outside of our own district, and we had the chance to speak with other teams, attend conferences hosted by teams and industry professionals, and have fun at events like RoboProm! This competition marked the end of CircuitRunners' absolutely phenomenal REBUILT season, and it was an unforgettable experience! Our mentors, sponsors, and volunteers helped bring the potential out of our team members and helped turn our ideas into kinetic; we're so proud of all of our accomplishments this season and are eagerly anticipating what's next!