SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – From April 15-18, the Merrimack High School FIRST Robotics Competition team, Chop Shop 166, competed in the New England District Championship at the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, Mass.

This regional competition brings together 100 of the best FRC teams from across New England to see who will represent the district at the FIRST Championship.

“One of my favorite things to see is a group of students coming together and working as a team and the students of Chop Shop did exactly that,” said Chop Shop Lead Mentor Ian MacGregor. “The months of planning, design, build, coding, planning for outreach, sharing through marketing, all of it came together smoothly as a single team working as one.”

Chop Shop fought hard during the qualifying rounds, winning eight of 12 matches.

“The first few qualification matches were rough with something breaking every match,” said Liam, Chop Shop’s software lead and robot operator. “The drive team eventually got into a rhythm solidifying our ranking of 10th at the end of the qualification matches.”

Chop Shop was ultimately selected by Team 1699 (Robocats) of Colchester, Conn., the captain of the Alliance Number Four. Team 1699 also selected Team 467 (Center of Mass) of Shrewsbury, Mass. to create a three-team alliance.

“Being selected to Alliance Number Four is the best ranking the team has had for the past five district championships, so we were all very excited and had high hopes for the playoffs.” said Liam. “Unfortunately, after two poor matches our alliance was knocked out of the playoffs.”

Although Chop Shop was eliminated from the playoffs, they finished 26th in the district and earned enough district points to qualify for the FIRST Championship in Houston for the second year in a row.

“I think I can speak for the whole team when I say that I am extremely proud to be representing Merrimack at FIRST Championship again this year,” said Katie, Chop Shop’s outreach lead. “Chop Shop goes to show that even a small team can have a big impact, and even our small town gets to show off on the world stage!”

The team will travel to Texas on April 28 to compete with more than 700 other FRC Teams in eight different divisions. To help cover the cost of travel, Chop Shop has started a GoFundMe where every dollar raised will go towards lowering the cost for the students on the team. Please go to https://gofund.me/a7b2b650d to make a donation.