Last year, Clearview's Varsity Mentor team 9848 set the bar high when they made it to the FIRST World Championship for the first time in Clearview history. Not only did they advance from the State Championship, they won 8/10 matches, were ranked 6th in their division, were selected to be an alliance partner in semi-finals, and won the 1st place Connect award for their division, which is the 3rd highest award given.

The expectations were high going into this year's competition, and the team absolutely delivered.  They again advanced from the NJ State Championship by winning the 1st Place Inspire Award.  Then, once they got to the World Championship, they won 9 out of 10 qualification matches, earning them a rank of 4th in the entire Edison Division! There, they became a captain of a 3 team alliance with teams 19666 Forever Knight from Shanghai, China and 12611 TechNova from Brentwood, Tennessee. The alliance played 3 matches before being defeated by an alliance made of teams from Texas, India, and Vietnam.  On the competition field, by being ranked 4th in their division, and there being 4 divisions, 9848 is among the top 16 teams out of over 8,800 teams worldwide!

On the judged awards side of the competition, teams are judged based on their 16 page portfolio documenting both the technical and non-technical side of the competition, a formal presentation, formal questions and answers, and pit judging where panels of judges visit the pit for the teams being considered for awards.  Teams are also watched throughout the competition for their sportsmanship and help toward other teams, dubbed "gracious professionalism" by FIRST, and their performance on the field. The judged awards give 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for each award, and from highest to lowest honor the awards are as follows:

• Inspire Award
• Think Award
• Connect Award (9848's award last year)
• Innovate Award
• Control Award
• Motivate Award
• Design Award
• Judges Choice Award

I lay this all out to make sure I can express how amazing it is that this dedicated, innovative, and talented group of young people won the 1st Place Inspire Award for the entire Edison division! Because there is only 1 Inspire Award winner in each of the four divisions, that means 9848 Gearview is in the top 4 of all 8,800+ teams worldwide for the judged awards! In addition, they were also awarded the "Gracious Professionalism" pin.

-Ruth Barreiro
FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Co-Coach