RLCC Robotics – 2016-2017 State Competition
Tue, 02/28/2017 - 10:56am
admin
By:
Alec J. Castaneda, RLCC Robotics team member
Red Lake County Central Robotics team had gone to VEX Robotics State Competition February 3-4 in St. Cloud, MN. When they arrived the team was anxious and shocked to see so many teams/schools; 61 to be exact. They set up their booth and prepared to face their unique opponents!
RLCC’s team’s number was 94841A and was partnered with team 3589C. To their disappointed surprise, RLCC’s battery in their claw died and team 3589C had tipped over leaving RLCC’s driver to finish the job. The round ended in 16-29, RLCC’s loss.
Thinking that they wouldn’t make it far they entered the “Skills Test” area and attempted to show off what there robot could do. At first they didn’t know why their robot had started to malfunction but later found out, after the disappointing 5-52 loss with team 4003A, the program had crashed and they were left helpless.
The first day was over and they had exited the building with the feeling of defeat and disappointment. This setback was not going to stop them from coming back stronger. They spent the night fixing the robot and succeeded.
On the second day they were ready and prepared this time for what was coming. Paired with team 3864B, they came back with an astonishing win of 27-19! However, that wasn’t the end of their winning. In round 59 RLCC was paired with team 9457A and had an even greater win of 37-9!
It was looking like a great future for the team after what had been happening. Sadly, the next match with team 7458F was a huge upset and had to be recounted six times to know the final score. The official score was 27-28 and RLCC was in shock to see how close they were to winning against the third best team in state.
That wasn’t the end for losses though. In the next match paired with team 4448A, RLCC’s robots arm disconnected from its battery and the driver had to resort to pushing instead of lifting, and their partner was only made for design purposes and not competition-wise. It was a devastating loss of 11-39.
Nervous but ready to go, they were left with one last match that could determine whether they go to VEX World’s Competition. Paired with number one in state, team 8110Z worked with us to win the final match and a historical score for RLCC, 47-0, the highest possible winning points legally in the rule book.
It was all over now and the waiting had begun to see who was going to move on. The top eight teams got to choose who goes with them to VEX World’s Competition. In the end, RLCC did not make it. Overall their record was 3-4 and RLCC went home, not saddened, but proud of what they had done!
First year ever entering VEX Robotics RLCC had gone to State, beat some of the best teams in Minnesota, and learned a lot from this great experience. They did not go home sad; they went home with a smile and proud they had made it as far as they did. They learned to work with others they did not know, discovered how mechanisms worked, learned how to build from pieces given to them, and overall realized what it meant to be a team.