Eagle Evolution (Team 3322), Skyline’s 2023-2024 robotics team, fought back from a series of setbacks to place second of 42 teams at the First In Michigan Ann Arbor Event on March 16 and 17.
Skyline’s robot, Pluto, mainly scores points by picking up and shooting foam rings into various receptacles in both autonomous/driverless and driver-controlled phases. Pluto can also earn points in the autonomous phase by just moving and in the endgame by lifting itself off the ground, shooting a ring into a trap, and having a human player, who mostly feeds rings to the robot, land a ring on a peg.
Qualification matches feature two alliances, each made up of three randomly assigned teams. Teams are then ranked according to their performance throughout qualification matches on Saturday and Sunday. “You have to be both cooperative and competitive in this competition,” said Scouting and Business Lead Marek Gustitus (‘25). “You can’t be aggressive. You can’t be rude against a team because if they see that, they are going to be less inclined to work with you.”
Eagle Evolution looked strong through the first day of qualification matches, going undefeated through seven matches on Saturday. That streak ended in their eighth match at the hands of a wiring malfunction. “An electrical connection, just one wire…failed,” said Fabrication Lead Graham Knight (‘25). “Every time we got bumped by another robot, which happens a lot in this game, something would come loose and the robot would just disable right in the middle of the field.”
While they resolved Pluto’s wiring issue that night, Team 3322 struggled with their remaining qualification matches, winning just one of four matches on Sunday. Their 7-5 record netted them a seventh-place qualification ranking.
After qualification, the top eight teams become alliance leads and can invite any team, including a top eight team, to join their alliance. Skyline joined up with the Dragons and the LISD TECHnicians in Alliance Four.
Alliance Four beat out Alliance Five in the first round but fell to Alliance One in the second round, putting them in the loser’s bracket. They swept through the loser’s bracket to reach the final, where they again faced off against Alliance One in two matches; Alliance Four lost both matches. “I’m very proud of 3322’s performance this weekend,” said Captain Simran Kheterpal (‘24). “Getting second place and ranking high after qualification matches most likely secured us a spot at States.”
States is at Saginaw Valley State University and starts April 4. Before then, the team is debating adding a pivoting shooter to Pluto. “I think we’ll do really well in States,” said Lead Technician Elliot Scully (‘26). “I think we’ll be able to get to Worlds this year…. Given the way all of our members know the robot, we are able to fix issues very quickly if they arise.”
