History
The BlazerBots, based at Overland High School in Aurora, Colorado, started competing at the Colorado Regional in 2011. We have had mixed success over the past 13 years. Our highlights include winning the Colorado Regional in 2012 and captaining an alliance in 2013. The team struggled after COVID and skipped the 2022 season, before being revived with entirely new students for the 2023 season. In our first season after revival, and as a “rookie-in-all-but-number” team, we placed 25th at the Colorado Regional. We currently have approximately 20 returning students from a variety of backgrounds, as well as numerous mentors, many of whom are FRC alums.
The team constructed "I Can't Swim", a robot that was able to score coral at L3 and L4. "I Can't Swim" featured a single stage elevator with an arm that retrieved coral from the coral station and then pivoted 180 degrees to score. At the 2025 Colorado Regional the team faced a number of technical challenges, but managed to finish with a 4-4-1 record and a ranking of 30th out of 50 team. The BlazerBots will be diving once more at the 2025 Kendrick Castillo Memorial Tournament in October, come check us out!
The team built "Note Fury", a robot that accomplished numerous BlazerBot firsts: the team's first swerve drive, the team's first full day of practice matches at competition, the team's first game pieces picked up off of the floor, the team's first successful climb, and many more! The team faught hard at the Colorado Regional, replacing every wheel at least once and rebuilding the bumpers between matches, before finishing 47th out of 49 teams. At the Kendrick Castillo Memorial Tournament, the BlazerBots finished 43rd out of 45 teams with a 2-8 record.
The team re-formed with a group of students who had never participated in FRC before. In the 2022 off-season, the team modified the 2020 robot to compete in the Kendrick Castillo Memorial Tournament, winning the event as a member of the #1 alliance. During the 2023 season, the team competed at the Colorado Regional, finishing 6-6-0 and placing 25th out of 43 teams. At the 2023 Kendrick Castillo Memorial Tournament, the BlazerBots finished 37th out of 41 teams.
In 2022, the BlazerBots disbanded as a result of COVID, a majority of the team graduating, and declining student interest.
The team struggled to engage with the at-home version of the Infinite Recharge game but continued to improve the 2020 robot.
In 2016, we built a robot focused on traversing the games defenses with a unique "butterfly" drive train. We competed at the Colorado Regional, although we missed the practice day due to a massive snowstorm, which also prevented us from attaching our manipulator arm. Despite those challenges, we finished with a record of 6-5-0, ranked 24th out of 48 teams.
In 2015, we built a tote-focused robot. We competed at the Colorado Regional and finished ranked 41st out of 51 teams.
In 2014, we built a catapult based robot that had trouble hitting its mark. We competed at the Colorado Regional and finished with a record of 2-9, ranked 51st out of 52 teams.
In 2013, we built a short distance frisbee shooter for Ultimate Ascent and competed at the Colorado Regional. There, we finished with a record of 8-5, ranked 9th out of 48 teams. This was enough for us to captain the #6 alliance, for which we picked teams 1619 and 4550 as our partners. Our alliance was eliminated in the quarterfinals. This was also our first year in pink!
In 2012, the BlazerBots competed at the Colorado Regional. We finished qualification matches with a record of 2-5-4 and a rank of 29th out of 48, but attracted the attention of the #1 seed, team 2996 and were picked for the #1 alliance along with team 399. Together with our alliance partners we won the regional and a trip to the FIRST world championship in St. Louis. There, we competed on the Curie Field and finished with a record of 3-6, ranking 99th out of 100 on the Curie.
