Blog

Wow, Team DAVE was ecstatic to participate in the STEMley Cup Championship on November 1st, 2025 in Hamilton, ON. Furthermore, DAVE was excited to demonstrate how the team operates and show our new students the ropes of FRC at this offseason event.

DAVE decided to give students a chance behind the wheel by trying out to be our 2026 Driver. We also taught rookies how to scout during qualification matches, fostering team spirit by cheering in the stands. As this was many of our new students’ first competition, we worked to ensure the event was enjoyable and students were prepared for events in the 2026 season.

DAVE started qualification matches in the morning with a win against 2056 and 4678. Over the course of the day, we had numerous wins and losses, ending with a dominant win.. We ended qualification matches ranked 3rd out of 27 teams, with a win-loss record of 5-2. 

We picked our previous alliance partner and fellow WWFIRST member, Team 4678 CyberCavs, rounding off the alliance with Team 5912 Copper Hawks. In elimination matches, we won our first two matches, moving down to the lower bracket but making our way back up for finals. We unfortunately lost both finals matches, but DAVE and our alliance partners finished the competition as Finalists. Additionally, we won the Frictionless Face Off award, given to a team for the best autonomous performance.

Congrats to Alliance 1 of 2056, 1241, and 9062 for winning the 2025 STEMley Cup Championship! Shout out to 4678 and 5912 for being amazing alliance partners. A big thank you to our parents, mentors, teachers, and supporters for helping us make this event a successful end to the 2025 REEFSCAPE season. We will see you next year on January 10th, 2026 for the REBUILT season kickoff.

Wow, the FIRST Ontario Provincial Championship was an amazing way to finish off one of DAVE’s strongest seasons! At our final event of the season, DAVE competed against the top 100 teams in Ontario for the chance of winning the title of Provincial Champion.

On the first day, DAVE played in six qualification matches on the Science Division, finishing the day ranked 5th with a win-loss record of 5-1. With our recent addition of a deep cage climb, we were able to secure the Barge Ranking Point in 5 of those matches.

The next day, DAVE played in six more matches, finishing qualifications ranked 3rd in our division with a 10-2 record. A highlight of the day was setting the high score on our field with 239 points unpenalized. We finished the day with our scouting meeting, where we utilized our data to determine which teams we would like to partner with for elimination matches the next day.

Day 3 began with Alliance Selection, where we elected to decline an invitation from the #1 seed and instead form our own alliance. We partnered with Team 4476 W.A.F.F.L.E.S. and Team 1285 The Biggest Birds on the third alliance, and quickly got ready for our upcoming playoff matches.

Our alliance went undefeated through the upper bracket, securing our spot in the finals of our division. Our first Finals match ended in a close loss, but quickly rebounded to win the next two matches and punched our ticket to the Grand Finals with a field high score of 249 points. This marked the first time since 2019 that DAVE won our field at Provincials.

In the Grand Finals, we played the winners of the Technology Division, where we lost both matches and finished our season as Provincial Finalists! WWFIRST was represented on both sides of the field, showcasing the strength of the teams in our region.

As of the conclusion of the FIRST World Championship, Team DAVE is ranked #3 in Canada and #11 worldwide. We set multiple world records, and never fell below 15th in the world.

Thank you so much to all of our parents, teachers, mentors, and supporters for helping us make this the most successful Team DAVE season yet. Shout out to our Corporate Sponsors: Benmur Precision Tooling, BR Group Services, BRH Plumbing, First General, Gene Haas Foundation, Melitron, Mitchell Plastics, Quantum Valley Investments, St. David CSS, Westmount Signs & Printing, Woodhouse Group, and WWFIRST for helping us secure our tenth win in team history!

Wow, Team DAVE was overjoyed to compete in our hometown at the University of Waterloo District Event! DAVE played alongside other WWFIRST teams, fighting for the chance to take home a second blue banner for the season.

DAVE was the first team to arrive at the venue on Friday morning, allowing us to secure the best seats for our scouts. We played in nine qualification matches over the day, winning eight matches in a row before narrowly losing our last match of the day. DAVE ended the day with a win-loss record of 8-1, setting a new world record of 249 unpenalized in Qualification Match 36 with fellow WWFIRST team, CyberCavs.

We finished qualification matches with a win-loss record of 10-2 and earning our spot as the 2nd seeded team at the event. DAVE accepted an offer from Team 4678: CyberCavs to play on Alliance 1 during playoff matches, rounding off our alliance by selecting Team 9263: ALD Lions.

Alliance 1 went undefeated in playoff matches, setting a new playoff match world record of 249 in Match 1 at the time. On average, we scored 220.4 points in playoff matches, filling the reef and net. After a fierce battle against Alliance 2 in Finals 1 and 2, we emerged as the winners of the University of Waterloo District Event.

This victory marked a monumental 5 wins at the event in our history as a team and was the first time we won an event with CyberCavs, our fellow WWFIRST team. DAVE was recognized for our creativity and innovation, winning the Creativity Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation for the second time this season. We were also ranked within the top 10 teams in the world, sustaining our #2 Auto EPA placement on Statbotics as of the end of the competition.

Thank you so much to all of our parents, teachers, mentors, and supporters for helping us achieve a second win in the REEFSCAPE season. Shout out to our Corporate Sponsors: Benmur Precision Tooling, BR Group Services, BRH Plumbing, First General, Gene Haas Foundation, Melitron, Mitchell Plastics, Quantum Valley Investments, St. David CSS, Westmount Signs & Printing, Woodhouse Group, and WWFIRST for all of your valued contributions. We could not do this without all of our supporters!

DAVE will be finishing off the season by competing at the Ontario District Provincial Championship from April 2nd to 5th at the International Centre. We look forward to playing against the best teams in the province for the last time in the official REEFSCAPE season!

Thank you so much to all of our parents, teachers, mentors, and supporters for helping us achieve our second event win this season. Shout out to our Corporate Sponsors: Benmur Precision Tooling, BR Group Services, BRH Plumbing, First General, Gene Haas Foundation, Melitron, Mitchell Plastics, Quantum Valley Investments, St. David CSS, Westmount Signs & Printing, Woodhouse Group, and WWFIRST for helping us secure our tenth win in team history!

Team DAVE was thrilled to compete at the inaugural Niagara College District Event this past weekend. From March 8th to 9th, DAVE went up against many of the top teams in the world, fighting for the chance to become winners of the event.

DAVE started the day bright and early, arriving at the venue at 7:00 AM to secure seats for our scouts. We started qualification matches with a loss, but rebounded quickly, winning our next eight qualification matches. DAVE finished the day with a win-loss record of 8-1 and ranked 2nd, earning the event high score in Qualification Match 16 with a score of 226.

On the second day, we won our remaining three qualification matches, securing our place as 2nd seed out of 27 teams. We were selected by Team 2056: OP Robotics to be on Alliance 1, and we picked Team 7623: Morebotics to round off our alliance.

Our alliance went undefeated in playoffs, consistently scoring over 200 points in each elimination match. In many matches, we filled the reef from levels L2 upwards, and scored multiple algae in the net. After a hard-fought battle by Alliance 3, we emerged winners of the Niagara College District Event. We were also recognized for our creativity and innovation in robot design and strategy, winning the Creativity Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation. We were also ranked within the top 5 teams in the world after the event, holding the #2 Auto EPA spot on Statbotics.

Thank you so much to all of our parents, teachers, mentors, and supporters for helping us achieve this win in our first event of the season. Shout out to our Corporate Sponsors: Benmur Precision Tooling, BR Group Services, BRH Plumbing, First General, Gene Haas Foundation, Melitron, Mitchell Plastics, Quantum Valley Investments, St. David CSS, Westmount Signs & Printing, Woodhouse Group, and WWFIRST for helping us secure our tenth win in team history!

Next up, we will be competing at the University of Waterloo District Event from March 20th to 22nd held in the Physical Activities Complex. We look forward competing against other teams at our local event!

Team DAVE was thrilled to compete at the first annual All-Star Alliance Invitational from August 9th – 11th at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan. We partnered with 118 Robonauts and 2468 Team Appreciate to form the “Texas, Eh?” alliance, going up against eight other alliances for the chance to become the first alliance to win the event.

We left Waterloo at 8:30 AM, travelling by bus to Michigan. We arrived at Kettering University at 1:30 PM and started loading in. DAVE members toured the university campus, receiving free Kettering t-shirts. As our full alliance was not able to arrive by 6:00 PM, we were unable to practice leading into the first day of competition.

DAVE arrived at the venue by 7:15 AM to get the best seats for our scouts. We were able to practice with the Robonauts and Team Appreciate before qualification matches started at 11:00 AM. Our alliance started the day with a win, ending the day with a record of 6-4 and ranked the #4 alliance.

On the final day, the “Texas, Eh” alliance played in six qualification matches, replaying one later in the day. We ended qualification matches with a record of 8-8 and were ranked the #6 alliance. DAVE headed off to lunch and prepared for the start of elimination matches. Kudos to the #9 alliance for achieving the first triple climb!

“Texas, Eh?” went up against the Mexican Power Alliance to start elimination matches, losing the first match of eliminations. DAVE and our alliance partners rebounded, winning the next 2 matches and moving on to quarterfinals. In total, we played six matches against the Mexican Power alliance, almost a third of our matches!

Next, our alliance went up against the #2 ranked alliance, “GrayForce!?” We put up a hard fight but unfortunately lost both matches, getting eliminated from the competition. Congratulations to the winning alliance of RBG: 27 Team Rush, 33 Killer Bees, and 4362 CSPA Gems for winning the inaugural All-Star Alliance.

Although the “Texas, Eh?” alliance was unable to win the event, DAVE had a blast competing with the Robonauts and Team Appreciate. Thank you to all of our supporters for cheering us on at Kettering University! We hope to see you at STEMley, an off-season event hosted by FRC Teams 4039 – Makeshift Robotics and 5406 – Celt-X, in October where DAVE will compete for the last time in CRESCENDO.