The Becker robotics team had a wildly successful trip last week to Houston, TX, as they navigated their way to the final field in the World Championships and placed fourth.

“This is the pinnacle, it’s the top level of competitive robotics and our kids performed exceptionally,” Coach Alex Jurek said. “These were the best robots on Earth and because of our kids, we were right there — we belonged.  It was surreal to get to the final round and to hear our team name and our hometown of Becker announced.”

Becker had a tough road to get to the final round of competition which is named the Einstein field.  At the beginning of the World Championships, there are teams competing in eight divisions to try and make it to Einstein.

Becker was in the Johnson division and drew the 4th strongest strength of schedule to try and make it to the finals.  This means that only three other teams in the entire Championships had a more difficult bracket based on the strength of their opponents.  Becker not only ended up winning that competition to earn the right to compete for the title on Einstein, but the team also picked up the Quality Award for their division because of design and build of their robot, LockJaw.

“Our robot performed flawlessly until our last qualification match when we had a bevel gear that sheared,” Jurek said, noting that the pit crew did the necessary repairs to keep competing.  “It was one of the most spectacular robots at the competition and you could tell it belonged with the best of the best.”

Einstein

The final division consists of 8 alliances that each contain four robots.  Becker teamed up with a pair of Michigan schools, as well as one from California for the final competition.

Becker won the opening round, then lost to hit the bottom of the bracket.  Ultimately, the Becker alliance lost in the third place match with LockJaw leading the way in scoring points.

It was Becker’s second ever time competing on Einstein and in 30 years of competitive robotics, only one other team from Minnesota has had two appearances on the final field.  In fact, only five teams from Minnesota have ever appeared in the finals.

State

Next up for Jurek’s team is the MSHSL state tournament, to be held on May 6 at Williams Arena with free admission.  In a weird schedule quirk, the state tournament is held after the World Championships because the MSHSL is not part of the FIRST organization that sanctions the World competition.  

But Jurek and his crew are setting their sights on a third state title after winning the crown in 2013 and 2022.  All together, the Becker team has made an incredible eight state tournaments out of the nine seasons they have been eligible.

Houston

Jurek and his team reported to Houston a couple days early for last week’s championships and were able to tour NASA’s Texas facility.

“We really want to thank the school district for allowing us to go early and see NASA before the tournament,” Jurek said.  “It was an incredible learning experience for our students.”

He was also quick to thank the team’s sponsors and entire community for helping with the expenses of taking the team (and LockJaw) to Texas.

“Some people think that since we make it to Worlds so often that it must be easy to get there and nothing could be further from the truth,” Jurek said.  “It’s because of the incredible students and the mentor network that we have been fortunate enough to experience this success — it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity that we’ve been able to experience nearly every year.”

Becker has appeared at the World Championships seven total times, an unheard number for a team that started in 2013.

“It’s amazing to see our kids interacting with teams from Israel, Turkey, Japan, Australia and all the other countries represented there,” Jurek said. “The kids work very hard while we are there in doing their regular school homework, as well as finding things from other teams that we can bring back to make our team better.”