The sound of robots roaring and the chant “Tick, Tick, Tick, Boom” filled the gymnasium of Manor Senior High School on Saturday, March 28, and Sunday, March 29, as the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Challenge (FRC) Team Orange Dynamite competed in their second district competition of the season and took home the prestigious Impact Award — the highest award in a FRC competition.
For the 2026 season REBUILT, teams built robots to collect lightweight foam balls, known as fuel, into their respective field goal in alliances of three teams. In addition to shooting, robots had to navigate either driving under a low trench or over a raised bump to reach scoring zones. At the end of the match, teams could earn extra points by climbing and hanging from a horizontal bar at various levels.
“Robot-wise, there was a lot of work that had to be done going into this competition to make sure that we could kind of last throughout an entire competition,” FRC Director Shrika Prakash ‘26 said. “There’s so much wear and tear that happens in robotics when you’re slamming into things and constantly driving the robot, so going into the season, we built our robot to combat that.”
This competition had a short two-week turnaround period from the first district competition at McAllen, Texas, where Orange Dynamite placed first in the entire competition. During this period, Prakash and FRC Director Archit Garg ‘26 focused on engagement during meetings.
“My job is mostly on the robot side, where I’m making sure that assignments are split up and keeping a track on the big picture goal for what our robot needs to look like,” Garg said. “When delegating tasks, it is important to remember that there are lots of people who dedicate time to being on the team, and our goal as FRC Directors is to make people genuinely feel rewarded for the effort they put into the team.”
Orange Dynamite placed third out of 27 teams during the qualification matches, enabling them to become an alliance captain and choose two other teams to alliance with for the playoff matches.
“During qualification matches, I felt really happy about how our robot worked because we were really consistent,” Prakash said. “Watching the team grow from my sophomore year to now, one thing we don’t struggle with anymore is consistency. I loved knowing that every time we put the robot on the field, it would work. Even if something unexpected happened, we were still operational and able to score really well.”
During playoff matches, Orange Dynamite formed the second seed alliance, partnering with Team 5572 Rosbots from San Antonio, Texas, and Team 8573, Rogue-Rangers LEGACY from McAllen, Texas. Ultimately, Orange Dynamite was eliminated from the playoffs after winning one match and losing two.
“The playoff matches didn’t go how we thought they would,” Prakash said. “Even when we were doing the playoff matches, I knew we wouldn’t be in a bad spot for Worlds, which is the goal right now. Even though the playoff matches didn’t end how we really wanted them to, I think it motivated me to think further into what I need to do [and] how I can be more proactive to ensure some problems that happened could get resolved before States.”
Despite the disappointment from playoffs, the event ended on a positive note with the team’s win of the Impact Award — the highest award at an FRC competition. The Impact Award recognizes a team that best represents the ideals of the FIRST program, on and off the field, by celebrating engineering excellence and outreach initiatives.
“It felt really amazing to see that all of our work was actually able to pull through, and that our team’s actually being recognized with such a prestigious award in the competition,” Reett Aulakh ‘28 said. “This is the first time in three years that we have won the Impact Award, so it’s especially meaningful.”
Since the Manor competition, Aulakh has been working alongside the rest of Orange Dynamite’s Impact Team to develop their outreach presentation by enhancing their slideshow presentation and designing a new brochure to give to the judges specific to the award.
“To prepare for this competition, we basically put together all the stats that we had previously included in our slides and consolidated it so you could actually see our big measurable impact in our large numbers,” Aulakh said. “I’m really proud that we found a way to show that to something that comes with more experience and practice.”
Orange Dynamite’s performance at the past two district competitions has enabled their advancement to the state level competition, where they will compete for a chance to advance to the World Championship. Ranked one of the top teams in engineering and awards, Orange Dynamite took the wins from the last two competitions as a sign for their performance at states, entering the next level of competition with confidence in their robot.
“Overall, our season has been incredibly strong, and by every measurable metric, this is the best team we’ve had in over 15 years,” Garg said, “I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, and we’re focused on continuing to improve our robot and initiatives as we push toward Worlds.”
