BB-R8ERSGulliver Prep Robotics
BB-R8ERS students wheeling the 5557 robot through the pits at a competition

BB-R8ERS

FRC Team 5557 from Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami

Forty students, competing in FIRST Robotics since 2015. Last season we won the Iowa Regional, took the FIRST Impact Award in South Florida, and played at Championship in the Daly Division.

Raiders Revenge on Oct 24Sponsor the team

Raiders Revenge is October 24

We're hosting an FRC off-season event at Gulliver Prep with Teams 8817 and 59. Come dressed in your Star Wars best.

Schedule and registration

Our robots

A new robot every season, designed, built, and programmed by students.

2026

V8ER

  • Regional Winners, Iowa RegionalSeeded 41st, won through the playoff bracket
  • FIRST Impact Award, South Florida Regional
  • Daly Division, FIRST Championship

2025 season, Reefscape

LUCY

Season results coming soon.

2024 season, Crescendo

OXY

  • Finalists, Orlando Regional1st seed of 70 teams, lost the final by 3 points
  • Finalists, South Florida Regional39 teams
  • 7th seed, Rocket City RegionalLost in playoffs by 3 points
  • Industrial Design Award ×2, South Florida and Rocket City

Awards

Every award since our rookie season in 2015.

2026

  • Regional WinnersBlue banner

    Iowa Regional

    First event win in team history, qualifying for the FIRST Championship Daly Division.

  • FIRST Impact AwardBlue banner

    South Florida Regional

    FIRST's highest honor, given to the team that best embodies the mission beyond the playing field.

2024

  • Industrial Design Award

    South Florida Regional

    Judges called the robot functional, fast, and simple in its design.

  • Industrial Design Award

    Rocket City Regional

    The same robot, recognized again at a second regional the same season.

2023

  • Engineering Inspiration AwardBlue banner

    Tallahassee Regional

    Captained Alliance 4. The award earned the team's first FIRST Championship invitation.

  • Creativity Award

    South Florida Regional

    Sponsored by Rockwell Automation, recognizing creative thinking in robot design.

2022

  • Industrial Design Award

    Orlando Regional

    First Industrial Design recognition for the team.

2015

  • Rookie Inspiration Award

    South Florida Regional

    Earned in the team's inaugural season for commitment to spreading the message of FIRST.

Outreach

We started in 2014, and teaching has been part of the team ever since. Our members run coding and engineering lessons at Breakthrough Miami, and bring hands-on STEM projects to kids at the Boys and Girls Club and the Gibson Bethel Community Center.

The idea is simple: give students real experience building robots, then take what we build to competitions across Florida and the country. That work is what earned us the FIRST Impact Award in 2026.

  • Breakthrough Miami

    Teaching Coding

    Leading programming lessons for middle school scholars.

  • Breakthrough Miami

    Teaching Engineering

    Hands-on engineering and design lessons in the classroom.

  • Boys and Girls Club

    STEM Activities

    Bringing robotics and STEM projects to younger students.

  • Gibson Bethel Community Center

    Community Workshops

    Hands-on STEM activities for kids in the community.

Rookie tips

What we wish someone had told us in 2015, season by season.

Before the season

  • Get money sorted early. Sponsors take months to respond. Start asking in September if competitions are in March.
  • Read the rules document once before anything. Read it again when you disagree about what the rules say.
  • Find your sub-team leads: people who actually want to lead, not people you assigned. Leadership matters more than skills.
  • Build a simple intake mechanism first. Everything else depends on whether you can grab game pieces.

During build season

  • Your first design idea will fail. Build it anyway, fail fast, learn from it.
  • Drive train first. Arm second. Shooter third. Everything else is tuning.
  • Code runs late. Electrical runs later. Mechanical finishes on time and then waits. Plan for this.
  • Test on the practice field weekly, not the day before competition. Surprises suck.
  • If someone says "this will break under load," they are usually right. Listen to them.

Before competition

  • Ship with parts you have tested in competition conditions. Bring backups for those parts.
  • Your practice times are lies. Match pressure is different. Drivers will panic. Expect it.
  • Make a spare intake, a spare wheel, spare bolts. Not extras, actual spares ready to swap.
  • Meet other rookie teams before competition. You will see them again. Be kind.

At the event

  • Pit area = first impression. Clean, organized, labeled. Team identity lives here.
  • When your robot breaks, the pit crew is your lifeline. They need to understand the problem in 30 seconds.
  • You will lose matches. Many of them. This is normal. What matters is how you respond.
  • Talk to other teams. Mentors. Students. People at the event. This is half the value.

After the season

  • Document what broke and why. Not "servo failed". Document the load, the condition, the hours run.
  • Video of every match. You will see things in footage you missed live.
  • Tell your story. Awards care about what you learned, not what you built.

News

April 2026

BB-R8ERS win the Iowa Regional and advance to Championship

Team 5557 won their first regional event at the Iowa Regional, then competed at the FIRST Championship in the Daly Division.

Read the full story

The 2026 season ended with the team's first regional event win at the Iowa Regional, a milestone that had never been reached before in the program's history.

After finishing qualifications ranked 41st of 53 teams at Iowa, the team advanced through the playoff bracket to win the event outright. The win qualified Team 5557 for the FIRST Championship, held in the Daly Division.

At Championship, the team competed in a field of 75 teams, finishing qualification rounds ranked 61st. The experience of competing at the highest level of FRC is something the team carries forward.

The Iowa win, combined with two other significant recognitions that season, made 2026 one of the strongest years in the program's history.

April 2026

Team 5557 wins the FIRST Impact Award at the South Florida Regional

The FIRST Impact Award is FIRST's most prestigious honor, recognizing teams whose work extends beyond the robot and into the community.

Read the full story

At the 2026 South Florida Regional, Team 5557 was awarded the FIRST Impact Award, the most prestigious recognition in FIRST Robotics Competition.

The award recognizes teams that best embody the mission of FIRST: to inspire young people to become leaders in science and technology. Judges evaluate community outreach, team sustainability, and how effectively the team spreads the message of FIRST beyond their school.

Earning this award is a result of sustained work across multiple seasons: in classrooms, at community events, and with other teams. It reflects the business, media, and strategy sub-teams as much as the engineering work on the field.

Also at the event, student Logan G was named a FIRST Leadership Award Finalist, recognizing exceptional leadership and the potential to be a leader beyond robotics.

April 2024

Three regionals, two finals: our 2024 season

Our 2024 robot, OXY, reached the finals at both South Florida and Orlando Regionals and won the Industrial Design Award at two events.

Read the full story

The 2024 season was the team's most competitive on the field. Competing across three regionals in the CRESCENDO game, the team reached the finals at both South Florida (39 teams) and Orlando (70 teams). A finalist finish at Orlando had never been accomplished at Gulliver before.

The Orlando finals came down to the last points. The team went undefeated through qualifications and advanced to the championship match, losing by three points to the top-ranked team in Florida.

The robot, named OXY, was praised by judges as functional, fast, and simplistic in its design. That recognition came in the form of the Industrial Design Award at both South Florida and Rocket City Regionals: two separate events, two awards for the same machine.

At Rocket City Regional in Huntsville, Alabama, the team ranked seventh in qualifications and fell in a tight two-versus-three playoff matchup, again by three points.

Three regionals. Finalist finishes at two of them. Industrial Design Awards at two more. The 2024 season is the best record the program has put together on the field.

Sponsor Team 5557

Your sponsorship funds competition registration, travel to events, raw materials, and tools, directly supporting 40+ students each season.

Sponsors receive recognition on the robot, pit area, team shirts, and this website. Fill out the form and we'll follow up with sponsorship tiers and details.

SchoolGulliver Preparatory School, Miami, FL
FIRST TeamFRC Team 5557, BB-R8ERS
TBAthebluealliance.com/team/5557