Team History

Founding

In 2017, a group of students and parents of Pembroke School proposed the idea of starting an FRC team, at a time when there were only 2 in South Australia.

With support from our school, families, teachers and , Team Koalafied was officially established in December, 2017.

2018 - Power Up

Team Koalafied attended our first competition in 2018, at the FRC Southern Cross Regionals. With our robot 'Buzz', our team finished 15th in qualifying, and joined Alliance 6, reaching the grand finals and finishing as finalists. The team also won the Rookie All Stars award, recognising our team's exemplary efforts in inspiring and encouraging students to learn about science and technology, qualifying the team for the World Championships. In addition, Team Captain Amber Kraczkowska received the FIRST® Dean's List Finalist award, an extremely prestigious award.

At the World Championships, the team placed 30th out of 67 teams in the Roebling Division, joining Alliance 8 for the playoffs. The playoffs were extremely competitive, and Alliance 8 finished their journey in the quarter-finals.

2019 - Destination: Deep Space

2019 saw Team Koalafied bring in experience from a fantastic previous season, and this year, the team competed at both the Southern Cross Regionals and the South Pacific Regionals. At the South Pacific Regionals, the team placed 37th out of 62 teams in qualifying, partnering up with Alliance 6 as a second pick for the playoffs. The out-of-the-box design of the telescoping arm for the Poltergeist 3000 caught the eyes of many, and the team received the Creativity Award for the intentionally designed solution.

2020/2021: Infinite Recharge

An exciting 3rd and 4th season was impacted heavily by the COVID-19 global pandemic. The 2020 Southern Cross Regional was cancelled just a week before the competition, though the team were able to participate in the at-home challenges with our 2018 and 2020/21 robots. Our 2020/21 robot Bob was able to compete at the unofficial 2021 South Pacific Competition, placing 2nd in qualifying, becoming the alliance captain of Alliance 2 and finishing second in the playoffs.

It was this year however, that saw most students within the team graduate, along with their parent mentors. The team now faces a significant challenge - recruit more members or risk shutting down.

2022 - Rapid React

With only around 5 students and 3 mentors, the team struggled and did not participate in the official 2022 season. However the team was able to construct a robot for the 2022 Melbourne Robotics Tournament Offseason event. While Terrance was, understandably, not the best robot, the team was selected by an Alliance to play in the playoffs and ended up winning the first ever Melbourne Robotics Tournament!

Following the success in the offseason event, the team went on a recruitment spree. While only 3 students joined, it was enough people to jumpstart the team again for a new season in 2023.

2023 - Charged Up

During the preseason, Team Koalafied experimented with swerve drive, something that was only just emerging within Australia. At the Southern Cross Regional, Borzoi ranked 6th in qualifying, an impressive feat for a team with a massive turnover in membership. As an alliance captain for the first time, the team picked teams #4774 and #7583 as alliance partners, finishing 3rd overall! In addition, the team also won the Quality Award, celebrating our robot's robustness in both concept and fabrication.

Before the Melbourne Robotics Tournament, the team designed a new and improved intake, boosting the scoring capability of our robot. At the tournament, Team Koalafied finished 1st in qualifying, and won the competition for the second year in a row!

2024 - Crecendo

Carrying the experience from the previous season, Team Koalafied continued training and teaching students on new skills, including CAD, mechanical skills, and CNC manufacturing. While #10-32 was excellent at what it was designed for, some electrical difficulties (including self destructing wires!) limited our performance. Regardless, the team placed 14th out of 47 teams at an extremely competitive Southern Cross Regional, placing 3rd overall in the playoffs.

Team Koalafied saw greater success at the Melbourne Robotics Tournament, where our team placed 3rd in qualification rankings, and placed 2nd overall with Alliance 1.

2025 - Reefscape

With new team captains, many more students and greater confidence than ever, the 2025 season looked promising, and an exciting season it was! Attending the FRC Southern Cross Regional with Locked In, Team Koalafied finished qualifiers in 3rd place, and finished 2nd overall as the captains of Alliance 2. In addition, the team also won the Excellence in Engineering Award, qualifying the team for the 2026 FRC World Championships, the first qualification for the team since 2018!

With the unexpected qualification, the team made significant modifications to both our climbing and scoring subsystems. In the Newton division, the team placed 18th out of 75 teams, but did not make it into the playoffs.

For the Melbourne Robotics Tournament, a second robot, Unk was constructed, inspired by World Champions Team #2910. There, Team Koalafied (competing with Locked In) placed 13th in qualifiers while Team Unkoalafied (competing with Unk) placed 4th. Both robots joined Alliance 3 with Team Unkoalafied as captains, and finished 3rd overall.

2026 - Rebuilt

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