King's Cyberknights robotics team takes second place at World Championship

CyberKnights 4911 at World Competition
Photo courtesy King's

King’s High School’s FRC robotics team CyberKnights 4911 won second place overall at the 2018 FIRST Robotics World Competition in Houston this past weekend against 3,700 teams internationally.

Team members with their robot
Photo courtesy King's

The CyberKnights also became the first Pacific Northwest team (Washington, Oregon, Alaska) to qualify as an Einstein final alliance captain. Alliance captains form and run the alliance, determined strategy, etc. This is an extremely small group of teams historically. There have been a total of 7200 teams in the 27 year history of FRC and only 0.6% of them, or 43 unique teams, have qualified as Einstein final alliance captains.

CyberKnights Coach Mikel Thompson said, “For me it was the run of a lifetime, the stuff of dreams. We are in the top .6% of teams in FRC and we are only a 5th year team!  

"The team was amazing on all fronts, not only running the robot on the field, but in strategy, scouting, negotiating… they played the best teams in the world and beat all but one! 

"Our partners, 2910 Jack in the Bot from Jackson High School here in Mill Creek, 4499 The Highlanders from Colorado and 5006 Apophis from Arkansas were absolutely amazing. We could not have done it without them.”

Teams from six countries competed
Photo courtesy King's

For the Knights, the four day competition brimmed with exciting moments. After the first two days in Houston, the CyberKnights were 9-1 and ranked 1st out of 68 teams from 6 countries in the Carver Division. From there, they chose great alliance partners and went on to win the Carver division advancing for the first time ever to the international finals called Einstein. At Einstein, they were named alliance captains and won four of their first five matches placing them in the top two teams in the world. 

Photo courtesy King's

In the final rounds, the CyberKnights fell 0-2 to the Cheesy Poofs 254, a team from Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose, CA and their alliance partners, one of which, the Spartabots, is also from the Northwest, Skyline High School in Sammamish. The Cheesy Poofs had a perfect season 54-0.

King’s High School Principal Bob Ruhlman, who traveled with the team, said, “I am super proud of our kids, Coach Mikel Thompson, our mentors and our volunteers. That was unbelievable fun!” He also extended a congratulations to the Cheesy Poofs and their alliance partners for their win and great season.

Photo courtesy King''s

On their Facebook page, the CyberKnights thanked “their amazing coach, Mikel Thompson, all of their mentors and sponsors and King’s Schools for all of the support.” King’s Schools will hold a special assembly and school parade for the CyberKnights this Friday, April 27, at 2:15pm.

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