King's robotics teams earn top rankings at world championship in St. Louis

King's robotics team competing in world championship
Photo courtesy King's schools

King’s Schools announces a top four overall finish for the CyberKnights, team 3717, and the CyberDaze, team 4590, at the FTC Robotics World Championship. The competition took place April 27-29 at the Edwards Jones Dome in St. Louis, Mo.

In the two day long qualifier rounds, each team competed in different divisions  —the CyberKnights in the Edison Division and CyberDaze in the Franklin Division. The CyberKnights (3717) finished 1st, and the CyberDaze finished 9th in their respective divisions, earning each the right to compete in the final rounds. 

Moving forward in the competition to the final rounds, the CyberKnights and CyberDaze both faced difficulty when teams within their alliances were forced to drop out due to electric and technical performance issues. While this caused the CyberKnights and CyberDaze to fall short of a 1st and 2nd place finish, the strong performance of these two King’s teams proved enough to solidify the 3rd and 4th place spot.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar measures
the vertical extension
Photo courtesy King's

Further leaving their mark, King’s Robotics wowed the audience, judges and competition with an unprecedented performance in the height competition. Their vertical extension of 14.5 feet from an 18 inches platform more than doubled what competition designers had anticipated possible. Basketball legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was on hand to measure the lift (see photo).

King’s Robotics arrived back on the evening of Sunday, April 29 excited by their success, and yet eager to get back to work. Coach Mikel Thompson summarizes, “Competition at this level is full of dynamics and variables—we did as well as we could and almost pulled it off.  Next year…”

For more information on King’s Schools, contact Sally Ralston 206-546-7218,