week 5 - uvm

Team 4909 traveled to Burlington, Vermont, to compete at the 2026 NE District UVM Event. This competition was a unique one for our team — heading into the weekend, we made a deliberate decision to begin shifting a significant portion of our focus and energy toward building a brand new robot for the upcoming District Championship. While we competed with the same heart we always bring to the field, UVM 2026 marked the start of an exciting new chapter for our team.

Throughout the qualification rounds, we competed in 12 matches, posting a record of 4 wins and 8 losses to earn a 24th-place ranking heading into alliance selections. With part of our team already deep in the early stages of designing and planning our new machine, our performance on the field reflected that intentional reallocation of focus. Our drive team worked hard in every match, showing resilience and adaptability throughout a demanding qualification schedule.

During alliance selections, we were honored to be chosen as the first pick by Team 839, Rosie Robotics, to form Alliance 5. Rounding out our alliance as our third partner was Team 1512, The Big Red — a familiar and respected partner from the New England district.

Once eliminations began, we opened strong, defeating Alliance 4 by a score of 395–327. We then faced the top alliance in the bracket, dropping that match 290–644 and falling to the lower bracket side. But our alliance wasn't ready to go home — we battled back with a hard-fought 318–284 win over Alliance 6 to stay alive. Our playoff run ultimately came to an end in Round 4 of the double elimination bracket, where we met Alliance 4 once more in a tight match, falling 260–288. We finished the playoffs 2–2, giving us an overall event record of 6–10–0.

While we didn't take home a banner from Burlington, what happened behind the scenes this week may prove to be even more meaningful. This week, the Billerica Bionics officially began construction on a completely new robot — built from the ground up with the District Championship in mind. The decision to redirect our energy at UVM was a calculated one, and the whole team is fired up about what we're building. DCMP is right around the corner, and we’re just getting started.