Story

The 2024-2025 season is RAID’s 13th season as and participant in the FIRST Robotics Competition.

The team started in the fall of 2012 participating in the 2013 competition season. The game in 2013 was named Ultimate Ascent where teams had to shoot Frisbees to score points. In the initial year, the team competed at the Seattle Regional.

During the 2014 build season, the team became much more competitive, playing the game Aerial Assist. In the first year as a district, all teams in the Pacific Northwest went to two smaller events. During the second event of the year, the 2014 Auburn District Event, the team played in the playoffs of the tournament and won its first award as a team.

In the 2015 build season, Recycle Rush, the team continued the trend of playing in the playoffs as well as winning awards at events. After having two successful district events, even making it to the finals at one, the team qualified to participate in the District Championship for the first time. After going and being selected to an alliance, the team made it to the semifinals of the tournament. RAID did well enough to qualify for the World Championship competition in St. Louis, however the team did not have the necessary funds to attend.

In 2016, the team continued the award winning and added a new trend, winning events. The team won awards at both district events and seeded as the #1 overall team at the Auburn District Event. The team selected Team 1425 to join the #1 alliance and went on to win the elimination rounds almost undefeated. This marked the first ever event win for the team. After qualifying for the District Championship yet again, the team was selected to join the #5 alliance captained by Team 360. Also joining the alliance was Team 3238. The alliance went on to win the District Championship, marking the team’s most successful season yet.

With the knowledge of 2015, RAID was able to plan ahead, knowing that there was a strong possibility of going to Worlds this year. After the successful district season, the team qualified for the World Championships and was able to attend for the first time ever. RAID was selected by the #2 alliance but fell out of the elimination rounds after the quarterfinals.

2017 was another successful season for RAID, making it to the finals at the Auburn District Event for a 3rd straight year. The team attended the District Championship yet again and also qualified for the Houston Championship. Unfortunately, the team was not selected for an alliance at the Houston Championship, however much was learned from the experienced veteran teams.

2018 was a building year for RAID. After losing numerous 4-year seniors at the end of the 2017 season, new students had to step up and take over. The team didn’t do as well as the previous 2 years, however one new award was added to the trophy case. The team managed to qualify for District Championships once again, marking 4 straight appearances at the competition. This competition was last of the season however, as robot breakdowns didn’t allow the team to perform to the maximum potential.

2019 was an impressive year for RAID, as the team took home an award at each competition attended, with the most impressive being a divisional award for Innovation in Controls at the Houston Championship. The team was recognized as having the most creative and innovative use of controls out of the other 120 teams in the division. The team was poised to take the momentum built in 2019 and carry it into 2020.

The momentum of 2019 led the team to build a strong robot for the 2020 competition, however COVID ended the season before RAID was able to compete. The 2021 season was also cancelled due to COVID. In 2022, the team began rebuilding after loosing two classes of seniors.

During the 2022 build and competition seasons, RAID was able to successfully field a robot and advance out of the qualification rounds at each event attended. Unfortunately the max scoring ability of our robot was not enough to win any events nor advance to further competitions. The team did add another award to the cabinet, this time for the integration of status LEDs to assist the drive team during competition.

In the 2023 season, the team built upon the previous years success by winning an award at every event we attended. With a desire to make it to the District Championship Event again, the team dedicated themselves to building the most complex robot we’ve ever built. With an early exit from our first competition’s tournament, the team heavily modified the robot in order to be more competitive and reach the District Championship Event.

The 2024 season saw the team build one of our most complex robots yet. We returned to District Championships after preforming well at both district events. No awards were won as a team, but there was a lot learned by the entire team.