On May 31, 2025, we competed at the inaugural Massachusetts State Championship at Merrimack College in North Andover. Although we were faced with some fierce competitors, we were ready for an epic day of matches!

This was not an official season competition, but rather one run by the FIRST NE district. The top 24 teams from Massachusetts gathered on top of the covered ice rink at Merrimack College and competed against each other for the title of Massachusetts State Champion.

During the qualification matches, we competed in 7 of the 28 total matches. It was quite stressful as this meant that we had many 3 match turnarounds, as opposed to our season events where we usually have at least 5 match turnarounds, if not even longer. We had to work harder and more efficiently. Even still, we were able to win 5 of our matches to end ranked in 5th place.

After the qualifying matches and lunch, we went into alliance selection. The 2nd ranked team, our good friends TJ2 (team 88) from Bridgewater, picked us as the 1st pick of their alliance. Together, we picked perSEVERE (team 5962) from Lowell to round out the alliance. Going into the playoffs, we had tough matches approaching us but we were determined to win.

Our alliance fought through the upper bracket, not losing a single match, even to alliance 1, which included the legendary Nutrons (team 125) and our Einstein partners Nashoba Robotics (team 1768)! In the finals, we were unsurprisingly up against alliance 1 again. We were confident we could win again- and we did- twice! This crowned our alliance as the first ever Massachusetts State Champions, earning ourselves our fourth blue banner from this season and a glass trophy!

We were so happy to compete and win this event! We look forward to future competitions in coming seasons and until then, an amazing summer!

Rain can be a setback, but not for the Ligerbots! Starting at 7 am, the weather wasn’t ideal for a Saturday morning. Especially since we were planning to be outside, go for a walk, and showcase our brand-new outreach robot.

As the day progressed, the weather improved to the point that we no longer had to worry about our robot being damaged by the rain.

Every kid who came to see the robot had gotten one of the pins seen at the bottom of the picture.

On Wednesday, May 21, 2025, the LigerBots planted American flags in memory of and in respect for deceased veterans as part of the flag planting ceremony for Memorial Day at the Newton Cemetery & Arboretum.

Flag planting is done to honor the service and sacrifice of deceased veterans by placing flags at their graves, a small yet powerful gesture of remembrance and respect.

Because Memorial Day was coming up, in honor of the veterans, we joined Mr. Mazzola, who is a veteran and the liaison to the Veterans Office. Alongside the other flag planting volunteers, we planted between 600 to 800 flags!

The annual flag planting at the Newton Cemetery for Memorial Day is a long tradition for LigerBots Coach Greer Swiston. This year marked her 22nd year of planting flags at the Newton Cemetery.

It was a good day for flag planting this year since there was little rain. We look forward to flag planting next year!

On Sunday, May 25th, we marched in the annual Memorial Day Parade in Newton. This is a recurring event for our team and an excellent way to spread awareness about robotics in our community.

We met at Newton North High School to set up before the parade, bringing both the blue banners we won this season and our 2025 competition robot. While we were setting up, we were approached by Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller who expressed her support for our team.

While marching in the parade, we drove our outreach robot along the course and used it to play catch with people along the parade course. In addition to this, we also passed out info flyers for our upcoming FLL Info Night on June 18th to encourage interest in STEAM. .

After walking through Newtonville on Walnut and Watertown Streets, we ended at Coletti-Magni Park in Nonantum. We were cheered on by many people including Mayor Ruthanne Fuller and several local politicians.

After the parade, we got free ice cream, which is a courtesy of Cabot Ice Cream, a long standing local business that always supports the community. It was a nice way to unwind and socialize before we packed up and left. We hope to continue doing this event in the future!

On Sunday May 18th, we marched in the Wellesley Parade for the third year in a row with our friends from Wellesley, Ultraviolet (FRC team 8567).

Before the parade, we arrived early to pack our robot into the truck driven by a coach from Ultraviolet. We had some downtime before the parade started, so we socialized and enjoyed snacks brought by Ultraviolet. This was a good chance to connect with our friends and strengthen inter-team bonds.

While we were marching, Thaddeus shot playground balls for spectators to catch.
This was a great way to make ourselves entertaining and to spread an interest in robotics.

In addition to our team bringing Thaddeus, Ultraviolet also brought their robot. Together, Thaddeus and Ultraviolet’s robot looked great on display and the parade judges liked our float so much that we got the award for Best Youth Float for the second year in a row!

After the parade, we went to Truly’s Ice Cream in Wellesley Square with Ultraviolet. It was another nice opportunity to socialize and express our shared love of robotics. We hope to do this event again in future years!