At the San Francisco Regionals on  March 15-18, the M-SET Fish robotics team gained admission to the World Championship in Houston, set to take place April 18-21.

Despite severe malfunctions of its robot during the tournament, the Fish managed to take home the Innovation in Control Award and thereby qualified for the championships.

Senior Kedar Abhyankar, who has been a member of M-SET his entire high school career, was overjoyed upon hearing the news.

“I’m super happy that my 11 years in First Robotics is ending with the World championships, which is something I’ve wanted to go to every year,” Abhyankar said.

This is a huge moment for the team, who went above and beyond this year in terms of their robot’s complexity.

“It was super stressful,” Abhyankar said. “The last two or three days before, there were people in the room until 3 a.m.”

Despite losing the semifinal rounds at the San Francisco tournament, the team managed to place sixth on the leaderboard. The team was busy preparing for their next tournament, set to take place from April 5-8.