Starting the school year off strong, the Westwood Robotics Club’s FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team, Orange Dynamite, was crowned champion of the off-season competition NTX Tournament of Robots on Sunday, Sept. 29. The event hosted 30 teams from across Texas. In order to give members more hands-on experience, the Robotics Club brought two robots, nicknamed “Toast” and “Kiwi.” While Toast is Orange Dynamite’s robot from the 2024 FRC season, named “CRESCENDO,” Kiwi was built as a more refined off-season robot to prepare for the 2025 season. The event lasted two days, with an All-Female competition, STEM Gals, on Saturday, and the NTX Tournament of Robots taking place on Sunday.

“[We] wanted STEM Gals and NTX to be a good learning experience, and learning is something you cannot do when you don’t have problems,” FRC Robot Director Lead Design Aayu Yadav ‘25 said. “We wanted to have one robot that’s really good and can help drivers practice on, and one robot that’s okay which we can have [newer members] work on — it’s a good learning objective to help repair the robot in the pits [and we] wanted to have the new members experience that situation in an off-season event.”

By bringing multiple robots, more members were able to become more involved, strengthening the team as a whole for the upcoming season.

“People that typically would be in the stands actually got the chance to do something more in this off-season event,” FRC Director Anaya Zia ‘25 said. “It was honestly about giving everyone experience that they may not get in-season because of how [stressful the season] usually is.”

While the outcome of the initial matches of NTX were less than ideal, it served as a great environment for the team to rise to the occasion and build team cohesion.

“I would say it was the perfect amount of stress and the perfect amount of enthusiasm where people [were] not too carried away to not focus on the robot, but also mindful that the robot [needed] to be fixed and repaired,” Yadav said. “I think [NTX] cultivated a really good learning environment where all members were able to come together and work on the robot without being hesitant or being scared to work on [the robots].”

After five qualification matches, the eight highest ranked teams at the event chose teams to join their alliances, forming groups of three teams each for the elimination bracket. Orange Dynamite’s newer robot, Kiwi, eventually made it to the eliminations round as part of the first seed alliance, coincidentally entering elimination matches alongside fellow RRISD Team The Robobots from McNeil High School, as well as Team Robowranglers from Greenville, TX.

“In around [five out of seven] competitions in the 2024 [season], [Westwood and McNeil] picked each other,” Zia said. “It was really nice to be able to do that again one final time for CRESCENDO, [and] getting to win that event with [McNeil] was really special to me.”

As preparation for the final matches began, the excitement in the pits was palpable as the team saw new hope after making it to the elimination round.

As Orange Dynamite moved through eliminations, slowly making their way to the finals, the team’s enthusiasm rose as their cheers echoed from the stands throughout the arena.

“Going through finals and just having a really good environment for our team was really nice,” Zia said. “We were able to do a lot of different team spirit things that you usually don’t have time to do during normal in-season competitions.”

As the final match concluded, and Orange Dynamite became champions, many robotics members found themselves excited for what the future holds, and eager for the upcoming season.

“My favorite part was looking at the team and looking at the people working together,” Yadav said. “[I know] that this is a team I can work with and this is a team I can lead into the next season, and set them up for success.”