2022 VEX World Champions
Robot Performance
As a part of an extremely eventful weekend, one of our VEX teams, 254F, attended the VEX World Championship in Dallas, Texas. After qualification matches in the Arts Division, 254F (seeded 2nd out of 81 teams) accepted an invitation to play with the #1 seeded alliance, team 38141B PiBotics B. Together, we were able to win the Arts Division and advance into the Thunderdome, where we competed against the 8 other division winners to win the World Championships!
Qualification Matches (Arts Division)
Our robot experienced few mechanical issues, so a lot of time was spent before qualification day fine tuning our autonomous code in preparation for the bevy of matches that were to come. We performed very well in our qualification matches, coming out with an 8-2-0 record and the second highest OPR in the Arts division. This success resulted in a 2nd place ranking with 23 win points. Going into the elimination rounds in the Arts Division, Team 38141B PiBotics B, the #1 seed, invited us to their alliance.
Playoff Matches (Arts Division)
We won every elimination match leading up to the finals, where we played 7 division final matches because of field errors, white screens, and many other issues. The strategy we used with Team 38141B was very simple. During auton, we went for the middle mobile goal, contested or not, because we had one of the fastest center mobile goal rush capabilities in the tournament. Team 38141B would be on the left side and would rush, either using their extender or not, depending whether they were contested. The main driving strategy we used was dependent on the number of rings we had scored. If we had more rings than our opponent and a greater amount of mobile goals, then we would drive up the platform with our mobile goals and have 38141B stack the mobile goals next to us. In any other situation, we would have both robots elevated on the platform with all possible mobile goals. This worked extremely well even though we had one mishap. It happened when our opponents in the finals changed places, but we quickly adjusted and made an appropriate counter. We simply rushed without using our extender and beat our opponents, leading them to revert back so we could follow our original strategy.
Inside the Thunderdome
Our alliance used a very similar strategy inside the Thunderdome. We used the same strategy as in the divisional rounds, because we knew no one would be able to counter it. Our assumption proved correct throughout the quarterfinal and semifinals.
Then came the finals. We misaligned our auto in the first match, causing us to be at a disadvantage due to a low mobile goal count. For the second finals match, after double and triple checking our alignment, we deadlocked with our opponents on the central mobile goal. Trusting in our robot, we continued the deadlock while 38141B collected rings around the field, our opponents eventually let go of the contested mobile goal, and the scoring from our alliance partner won us the match. In the tiebreaker match we missed the auto again, but our skilled driving and double park won us the match and the tournament!
We would like to shout out Team 9257C House Cats and Team 4154X U.S.S.R. for being an amazing alliance to compete against. Our alliance was very fortunate to emerge victorious after three incredibly competitive and nail-biting matches.
A Special Thanks
At the 2022 VEX World Championship in Dallas, we would have not have been able to be so successful without the amazing teams that we were able to work with during our matches. Special shout out to our pit crew and scouts for keeping 254F functioning at 100% capacity. We would also like to highlight the efforts of our mentors to make this experience possible for all of us. Lastly, Team 254 would also like to thank all the volunteers and referees that made this tournament an exciting experience.
