MRT 2022: Melbourne's FIRST^® Robotics Competition Off-Season Event!

MRT 2023 kicked off on a glorious Melbourne winter's day. It was cold, but the skies were blue as teams trundled their robot and kit down to the Pits.

It was fantastic to see teams arriving from NSW and SA. Normally it is the Victorian's stretching their legs after a long drive or waking up after an early morning/late night flight!

Once in the pits everyone set up quickly and started getting their robots ready for the practice rounds and meeting their pit neighbours. After opening ceremonies, practice rounds commenced. Those still working on their robots where grateful to see the action live via large screens installed in all the pit areas.



One team in particular had a very anxious first day as their robot went missing somewhere between Sydney and Melbourne. Luckily it turned up on Friday night and their pit was buzzing early on Saturday morning as they got ready to compete in their first Qualifying match.

We were very excited to welcome three pre-rookie teams to the event and Blackburn and Rowville are going on to compete in their first official FRC event in 2023. These teams only had a few weeks to set up a robot to compete in this competition, but that didn't mean they weren't competitive! It was clear to see on their faces that they were hooked on FRC and we look forward to seeing what they can do with a whole build season ahead of them.

In addition to our pre-rookies, it was lovely to see some learner drivers in this competition with teams giving their up and coming drivers valuable practice in a more relaxed environment.

At the end of the competition we were able to hand out 5 trophies:

• Competition Winner: 4613 (Barker), 6508 (Hastings), 9993 (Aquinas), 9996 (Koalafied)
• Competition Finalist: 5584 (IC), 6510 (Pymble), 5648 (Robocats), 8875 (Dangerous Minds)
• Highest Ranked Pre-rookie Team: 9994 (Blackburn)
• Team Spirit Award: 9991 (Rowville)
• Excellence in Robot Design Award: 7683 (Embers)

Congratulations to the winners and all those that participated.



You can see all of the results for MRT 2022 on The Blue Alliance.

Our tech wizards also made sure that the whole event was recorded on Youtube:
Melbourne Robotics Tournament Day 1
Melbourne Robotics Tournament Day 2
Melbourne Robotics Tournament Day 3

We also love these MRT Recaps from the RoboRoos and Pymble Pride

Thank you to all the teams that made the trek to Melbourne for the event. We know the effort involved and are very grateful for helping make MRT such a success. With your help we will continue grow FRC in Victoria.

MRT 2022 competing teams:

RoboRoos (SA)
Barker Redbacks (NSW)
IC Robotics (VIC)
Melbourne RoboCats (VIC)
Project Bucephalus NSW)
House of Ulladulla (NSW)
Hastings Heroes (NSW)
Pymble Pride (NSW)
XLR8 (VIC)
Blue Flamingos (NSW)
Embers (NSW)
Dangerous Minds (VIC)
Blackburn High School (VIC pre-rookie)
Rowville High School (VIC pre-rookie)
Aquinas (VIC pre-rookie)

Blackburn High School Gym is transformed

Robots on and off the field

Thank You

This event would not have been possible without the generous support of our Supporting Partners:
Gold Supporting Partners:

Ford and Blackbird Ventures,

Silver Supporting Partner:

Blackburn High School (our host)

Bronze Supporting Partners::

Maquarie University, Amazon, Andrew Donald Design Engineering, Stronco Constructions and Focus Audio and Lighting.

We were very grateful for the support of Macquarie University (ever the champion of FIRST in Australia) and their staff who traveled from NSW (or wanted to, but couldn't due to COVID). The legion of volunteers from Ford were also highly appreciated and we hope you all had a fabulous time.

If you, or your company is interested in volunteering or sponsoring the event please contact us.

We also could not have done it without our fantastic volunteers. For some it was the first time they had seen an FRC event and we hope they will be back to help us again next time. Special thanks to those helping with refereeing and field reset.

Some of our wonderful volunteers

We would also like to extend a special thanks to the experienced FRC volunteers who generously shared their time and expertise to train our local volunteers for key event roles which will help make FRC events in Victoria self sustaining.


Refs and field reset volunteers

We also really appreciated everyone keeping their masks and safety glasses on during the event, even though it was particularly difficult to do at the same time. Our front desk did a brisk trade in anti-fog wipes and spray!

We look forward to seeing everyone again in MRT23 which we hope is the next event of many as we expand FRC in Victoria.

Future Robotics Alliance (FRA)
If you want to get involved in FRC in Victoria contact us.

Game on~