CRyptonite had a fun time at the San Diego Regional, and was glad to take advantage of the nearby Beach. At the end of qualification matches, we could not believe our luck to be able to partner up with FRC Team 3255, and FRC Team 5429. We were able to set the regional High Score of 609! Congrats to the Regional Winners FRC Team 2659, FRC Team 1538, and FRC Team 597. Those were a close set of Semis matches!

The annual Katy FIRST Lego League Qualifier hosted by CRyptonite on December 2nd was an amazing success! Over 100 FLL students and 24 teams participated in this event, competing with their Lego robots and learning about the fundamentals of Hydrodynamics. The students also presented for Robot Design, Core Values, and Teamwork judging to win one of the six awards to move onto the championships at the British International School of Houston. Congratulations to teams 25108 Brainiac Maniacs, 13764 CyberWolves, 30582 Symbiotes, 15593 Beck-O-Bytes, 31103 Banshees, 34795 Computerized Coyotes for advancing to the championships. Big thank you to all the student and adult volunteers who volunteered their time to make our qualifier so successful! We look forward to hosting the Katy FLL Qualifier again next year!

On Wednesday, November 29, Team 624, in tandem with humanitarian group SEWA International, we proudly demonstrated our 2017 season FRC robot, Nautilus, to a group of elementary kids. After asking questions about STEM and the robot, the kids were delighted to play with the robot. The demonstration was a blast, and we hope to be able to do this again in the near future!

On November 4th, we were delighted to host our annual CRyptonite Science Day Camp fundraiser for 89 students. The students from grades 4-7 had a blast learning about a variety of science subjects, such as chemistry and biology, and at the end of the day were already planning to come back next year! Through our Science Day Camp, CRyptonite is proud to introduce STEM to the local community and educate the future generation.

On Saturday, November 11th, Team 624 returned to College Park High School for the Houston Robot Remix. 31 other teams gathered to compete to play the 2017 FRC game Steamworks. In this game, alliances of three teams each face off to deliver gears to human pilots, shoot wiffle balls referred to as fuel into a goal to build up pressure for points, and finish by climbing a rope on their alliance’s airship. 624 started off the day by beating two Texas powerhouses teams 118 and 148 in their first qualifying match. By alliance selections, 624 was seeded 29th. However, due to CRyptonite’s superior driving and ability to consistently climb and cycle gears, they were selected for the third seeded alliance by team 3478 The Lambots, from Mexico. Along with Team 5414, Pearadox from Pearland, Texas, the alliance advanced through some tough matchups, eventually reaching the finals. 624 fought valiantly, but were ultimately defeated by the first seed alliance led by 148 The Robowranglers and co-host of the competition, team 1477, Texas Torque. CRyptonite received the finalist award for being one of six teams to make it to the final round of the tournament. Overall, it was a great competition, and CRyptonite proved to be a good co-host, helping in both setup and teardown of the field elements and supplying student volunteers for the safety glasses station and the field reset crew in between matches. It was a great way to cap off the Steamworks season. Now, CRyptonite is waiting to Power Up in January 2018!