Posts Tagged ‘ vex ’
VEX States 2019
On March 15, 2019, VEX teams D, F, and X flew to Los Angeles States, and team M went to San Jose States, to compete for a spot at VEX Worlds. Unfortunately, none of our teams won an instant qualification to Worlds; however, teams D and F lost at semifinals at LA, one match away from being qualified, and team M won the Build Award!
At San Jose, team M had to battle out against some of the toughest teams in the area. Even despite the tough competition and minor robot issues during qualifications, team M was still able to keep a tough fight. At LA, all 3 of our teams ended up high in qualifications. Team D and F allied, while X was chosen by another good team. However, in their first match team X went against the two winners of the Google Signature event, which was the most difficult tournament our teams went to this season, happening a few weeks ago. Despite not winning a qualification at States, our teams will most likely get qualified through skills or online challenges. In skills, teams D and F are 12th and 13th in California rankings, and we are a finalist for the website online challenge. By next week, hopefully we will have a better idea of how many teams we will be sending to Worlds!
VEX Turning Point By The Bay Champions!
On January 19, 2019, 254 VEX teams 254D, M, X, and W attended the 2019 VEX Turning Point At The Bay tournament in Richmond. Overall, the tournament was the best tournament yet this season, with 254X winning the tournament along with team 81818X, and 254D winning the Excellence Award. Both teams are now qualified to attend a California State Championship in March.
During qualification matches, 254M got 2nd, 254D got 8th, 254X got 11th, and 254W got 15th. For elimination matches, team D and M allied with each other in the 2nd seed alliance, while X allied with 81818X in the third seed, and W allied with 95070C. 254W got eliminated in the first round, the round of 16, while the other 254 teams moved on. In the semifinals, 254X and 81818X fought and won a tough match against 254M and D, and moved on to win the finals. Last, while awards were being announced, team 254D was given the Excellence Award for overall great performance in the competition, during the judge’s presentation, and with robot skills.
VEX Championship
This past weekend, five of our VEX teams attended the VEX World Championships in Anaheim, California.
Our five teams were distributed among five separate divisions and played ten matches each. Qualification matches began on Thursday afternoon, continuing through all of Friday and concluding on Saturday morning. Our teams met varied levels of success during qualification matches; the level of competition at Worlds was incredibly high. When matches concluded on Saturday, team 254D ranked highest, seeding 16th with 7 wins, 2 losses, and one tie. They were also the only team to be selected for eliminations, which happened in the afternoon. In divisional quarterfinals, 254D, with the drive team of Eli Wu, Andrew Torrance and Goutham Gnanasekaran, faced off against top-ranked Fuxing High School and former world champions, Green Egg Robotics. They managed to win an incredible upset in the first quarterfinals match, but lost the second match and in a stroke of bad luck lost the tiebreaker match when one of their alliance robots fell over early in the match. Despite this setback, we are all proud of having made it so far at World Championships.
Team 254 also excelled off the competition field. We were recognized during the tournament for the website award, which we tied with Team 1114 for 1st place in the world. In addition, our mentor Pat Fairbank, who has worked tirelessly over the year to ensure the success of our VEX program, was recognized for his efforts by winning the Mentor of the Year award, becoming one of only 2 mentors from around the world to win the award this year.
Next years’ VEX game, named Toss Up, was also revealed at World Championships on Friday evening. Many of our team members have already gotten to work planning for this new game and thinking about possible designs for next season. The 2012-2013 VEX season has officially ended, but our team members are already eagerly looking forward to making the 2013-2014 season a great one for Team 254.
Team 254 Wins State Championships
This weekend our VEX teams had an excellent showing at the inaugural California State Championships, and ended up winning the tournament.
Five of our seven VEX teams attended State Championships: A, C, D, F, and G. The teams did well throughout the morning and noon in the qualification matches, with several great highlights throughout the day. For instance, C set the tournament high score, scoring 300 points in a single match; D won a 1 v 2 match alone when their alliance partner was disqualified; and D had the unique distinction of being the only team (out of 48) to go undefeated, earning a perfect 8-0 record and seeding first. In the afternoon, alliance selections happened and 4 of the 5 teams made it into eliminations. D, being first seed, was an alliance captain and chose as its partners 5369 (Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies) and 21C (SPUR-FLYS). C and F were both picked by 6A (Cyber Phoenix), while G was picked by 5327 A and C (Gael Force).
The afternoon was filled with exciting elimination matches. The C/F alliance lost in quarterfinals, while the G and D alliances each won semifinals to face each other in a Poof-on-Poof finals match. It was an exciting finals match indeed, going into a third tiebreaker match when each alliance won one round. Eventually, the D alliance pulled off the win, giving Team 254 the State Champion title, as well as qualifying 254D for World Championships.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNgbmuPKrxQ
Finals Match 1
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XNle0v7M5c
Finals Match 2
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7iumjyoGKM
Finals Match 3
In addition to winning the tournament, D also won the Amaze Award for their reliable performance and outstanding programming.
We are proud of our excellent performance at State, and the success has certainly prepared us for the upcoming World Championships.
VEX State, Day 1
Today was the first day of VEX State Championships, though no actual competition took place. Instead, today was a day for practicing alongside other teams and debugging any residual robot problems. We started the day by registering our teams and getting the robots inspected, thus saving us time tomorrow. Once that was done teams prcoeeded to test their robots on the 2 tournament practice fields, identifying and eliminating bugs along the way. We did this all afternoon (2:00 to 7:00), and it was certainly one of the most productive days we’ve had. Everybody has ironed out the kinks in their designs and we are looking forward to competing tomorrow.
Bellarmine VEX Results
Today's Bellarmine VEX tournament was one of the best-run ones in years, and to top it off two of our VEX teams won the tournament.
This was the only tournament this season in which all 7 254 teams were competing, and all of them did extremely well. 254C had an impressive undefeated (6-0-0) record in qualification matches and therefore seeded 1st. After them was 254D in the 6th seed, and rounding out the top 8 was 254F in the 8th seed.
Other 254 teams were scattered throughout the rankings, but that didn't matter because during alliance selections, all 7 teams either got to pick or were picked. As 1st seed, 254C got the first pick and chose 5369, the Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies from Challenger (which Abhi Kumar's little brother is on) as their 1st partner. Their 2nd alliance partner was our very own 254A.
Meanwhile, 254D was picked by the 5th seeded team, and 254F also got to pick a partner. This pushed 254B into a picking position, and they picked another 254 team, 254E, as their 1st partner and 254G as their second partner. Unfortunately, F and D had to face off in quarterfinals. F came out on top, so all teams except D got into semifinals.
In semifinals, the C/A alliance beat their opponents and moved forward, while the B/E/G alliance and F alliance were eliminated. C and A got to go to finals, squaring off against Oakland's 8000A and 8000B, who were allied with 6A. Things looked bleak when overheated VEXnet keys caused 5369 to lose connection in the first match, causing a loss. However, 254A pulled off an incredible comeback in the second match, descoring every point in our opponent's trough and leaving them only with floor tile goals, giving us the victory. 254C and 5369 then came together once more to beat the two 8000's in the third match, winning us the tournament.
It was an incredibly nail-biting finals round, and all members of the team, not just those on C and A, were extremely excited that 254 had taken back the Bellarmine title after losing it last year. All in all, it was an incredible weekend and an incredible comeback, and all of us are proud of our VEX teams.
San Ramon VEX Results
This Saturday, we had our first VEX tournament of the season at San Ramon. 6 of our teams (A-F) were present at the competition. Amazingly, all 6 of these teams got into elimination rounds. 3 of them were eliminated in quarterfinals, while the other 3 were eliminated in semifinals. So, while we did not win, we are proud of having gotten so many teams into elimination matches. Furthermore, the day provided several highlights. For instance, one qualification match saw 254F and 254E in the same alliance, and together they racked up an incredible score of 210 points. The video of this match is here:
Also, shortly thereafter, this happened:
That’s 2 of our teams, E and F, back to back on the top of the tournament ladder. Unfortunately, they later fell in the rankings but it was great while it lasted.
All 6 teams worked very hard at this tournament and did very well, if you weren’t there then please do congratulate them this week. We will now be looking forward to our next tournament, Bellarmine, which we are definitely aiming to win!
10/3 Whole team meeting and CalGames Info
At the team meeting today we went through a lot of information rather quickly, and especially a lot to do with CalGames. So here is a brief recap of all of the information from the team meeting:
VEX Captains have requested the number of CAD Licenses, and we can begin installing them on the team laptops tomorrow.
Scouting Leadership applications should be submitted to [email protected] no later than 11:59pm Wednesday Oct. 3rd
Bellarmine VEX Volunteer form is now online! If you are not associated with a VEX team or your captain says it is okay, you can fill out the form to be given a volunteer position. You can fulfill your outreach requirement by volunteering! And get a free T-shirt!
And a list of all the information to do with CalGames:
- CalGames is on Friday October 12th and Saturday October 13th at Woodside High school, 199 Churchill Ave. Woodside, CA 94062
- Friday begins at 3:30, closes at 8:00
- Saturday is 7:00am-5:30pm
- 8 students can fulfill half of their outreach requirement by signing up to volunteer Saturday night. Look to the signups page for more info
- Attendance is limited to 40 team members at a time, so RSVP on the signups page!
- One slot will fulfill a tournament requirement but everyone is encouraged to attend for as long as they are able
- Attendance will be taken at the beginning and at the end of each shift. This is how credit will be awarded. If you are present at time when your name is not on the list, then you will not be given credit for that shift
- Freshmen are required to attend CalGames. If this is problematic, contact Ms. Roemer immediately
- Friday is mainly for returning members, new members are not encouraged to attend
- Consent Forms must be signed and turned in to Ms. Roemer by Wednesday, October 10th. No Consent form means you will not be allowed to attend CalGames
- Rides will not be provided to or from Woodside. Please find your own means of transportation, including carpooling with other 254 members!
- Students who signed up for the CalGames food order should reimburse Ms. Roemer $7 before next Wednesday, October 10th.
- Food will be available at Woodside for those who did not use the sign up form; however, it is on a first come, first serve basis
image courtesy of: //wrrf.org//media.team254.com/CalGames-2012-Logo-FINAL.png
VEX Tournament Meeting
With the VEX season set to start Thursday, we can now begin to plan for the Bellarmine VEX Tournament in November. The first parent and volunteer meeting will occur within the next few weeks. The number of volunteers we get from this first meeting will determine how smoothly the ride will be all the way into November.
VEX Prototyping Session
This past Wednesday several of our VEX leaders, both captains and sub-captains, met in the old VEX lab for a prototyping session. The session was extremely productive; the VEX leaders each tried different approaches to intaking game objects, trying different construction methods to see what worked and what did not. The assigned captain/sub-captain pairs worked together to give each other inspiration and correct each others’ mistakes. While doing this, they took careful notes of what they tested, giving them something to work with when build starts as well as creating a foundation for the Design Notebooks which are so important for awards.
Upcoming Intro Meetings
There are two upcoming meetings introducing 254 robotics to potential recruits on the following days:
- Wednesday August 22nd
- Thursday August 23rd
At these meetings we will showcase our 2011-2012 basketball shooting robot Skyfire as well as give important information about the team.
