2023-2024 VEX Robotics Competition - Over Under

 

Thank you BPUSD for supporting these kids to travel while having budget constraints. We were not division champions however we ended 66th out of 498 middle school teams at World.

 

We did not officially qualify for Worlds in the conventional way. We were waitlisted and with only 2 days until the registration deadline was granted entry into the World Championships. Coming in as underdogs, we were considered a filler team. So 68689X "Who's Driving it Anyways" were going to fly under the radar for most of the competition. 

 

In a 10 matches at Worlds, X team ended with a 8-2 record ended around 18th. They should have been 10-0 with two matches losing by lost connection to the robot mid match. Frustation as that was, this year the other teams brought it by performing the AWP and unfortunately we did not match up with teams that could. With no way to have a high score for skills at Worlds the Xteam elected not to run skills at all or at least at full capacity. Going into eliminations round the team was basically going to be in the middle of the pack unless someone picked them up. But with a rather weak schedule and going against mid tier teams at Worlds, that pick up would be far and few between. At the end the kids would not be picked up but ended as the 11th team captain and teamed up with 1692A from China. Going into the Round of 16 aganist seed team#4 we knew it would be a battle for our lives. With the scored finalized and the dust settled, we lost with the highest score in elimination round of 155 to 139. 

 

I can not be prouder of team X in how they performed on the World stage. I hope that all my 8th grade team made it to Worlds but its always an honor to represent our school, the city of Baldwin Park, the state of California and the USA. 

 

This year we went to the San Diego State Championships as there was going to be a daylight saving change on the Los Angeles State Championships and I did not want my teams to be late or out of it because of the time change. So we knew going into the State Championships without the amount of regular matches compared to other teams it may hurt their chances to make it to Worlds.

 

68689A was 4-4-0 ranked #23 on the day. With a fresh design it performed well enough but without a reliable lift left them behind in most matches. They paired with 7700H in the elimination rounds and ended their day in the round of 16 against of 3324H and 8838C 107 to 72.

 

68689X was 3-4-1 ranked #27 on the day. With a new robot design and hot off a high school tournment win these kids were pumped. However, everything that could go wrong went wrong in regular match play. Penalized for everything under the Sun in from double zoning to two balls in the loading zone. But with all those penalities they were seed#12 in the elimination round and selected by 6517D Triton Bots from Chula Vista. In Round of 16 they beat out 3324Y and 8838A  66 to 53, they continued to roll in quarterfinals against 3324H and 8838C 90 to 81. They almost pulled off an upset against seed#1 in the semifinals with a lose of 90 to 87.

 

68689V was 1-7-0 ranked #41 on the day. Being a 6th grade team with some heart they in 2nd to last place in regular match play. 68689V was selected by 9078X from Griffith Middle School.  9078XM as their alliance partner, they lost to 3324B and 7899B in the Round of 16 with a score of 125 to 45.

 

 

This is BP STEM's second full tournament in the year. This is the first tournament they were using their version 2 robot. There were so many bugs on the robots we were pleasantly surpised that we went so far into the tournament. So much more to do with so little time left.

 

68689R was 3-2-0 ranked #14 on the day. Shooting much better that ever however not having an way to intake disc only limits how much offense they could produce on the day. 68689R is my all six grader team with no experience at all selected 9078X to pair up with in the elimination rounds. They beat out 91625C and 9078W in the Round of 16, but lost to 9078Z and 91625E in the Quarterfinals.

 

68689A was 3-2-0 ranked #12 and 68689V was 3-2-0 ranked #9 on the day.on the day. 68689A was still using their older model robot as verison 2 robot was not ready. This robot can produce high scores only problem the discs had a chance to jam on the shooter itself. 68689V was using their newer design but the cata would jam at the most unopportune time. 68689V selected 68689A as their alliance partner, they beat out 9413A and 2822E in the Round of 16, but met their match in the Quarterfinals against, 2822F and 2822A.

 

68689X was 5-0-0 ranked #3 on the day. Hot on the day with their newer robot design catapult. The catapult would still jam but they have figured a way to unjam the disc while driving. They paired up with 94773A Rancho Starbucks of Whittier in this elimination round. Both team did well in Round of 16 against 9078Y and 57350A, did well again in Quarterfinals against 6636A and 91625B, pulled off the impossible during Semifinals aganist 2822F and 2822A with both shooter not working well during Semifinals. During the Finals again, they were defeated by 9078Z and 91625E both team were shooting better than we were and won the tournament. 

 

 

BP STEM Academy again was invited to particate in the Rio Hondo League. Unlike last year where we only had 4 teams join, this year we had all 6 teams join! The 6 teams: 68689A - four 8th grade boys, 68689X four 8th grade boys, 68689V - four 6th grade boys, 68689G - four 7th grade boys, 68689D - four 6th grade boys and 68689E - six mixed grade all girls team. All 6 teams did well throughout the league. 68689X came in ranked 1st with a record of 16-1-0, 68689G ranked 3th with a record of 13-4-0, 68689A ranked 5th with a record of 12-5-0, 68689V ranked 7th with a record 11-6-0, 68689E ranked 13th with a record of 10-7-0 and 68689D ranked 15th with a record of 9-8-0.

 

68689X in elimination playoffs selected their sister team 68689A to become their alliance partner. This was a strategic play as their were not many teams that could effectively score or block in play. The kids were driving well throughout the competition and won round of 16 with ease. In Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals: these two teams brought out the big guns and started to score and play defensively once they had a led. Only in the finals, their opponents out scored them in the last few minutes of game play. However, during the match their opponents blocked them for more than 10sec without moving out of the way. Causing the officials to call the error match affecting and giving 68689 teams the win and the League title! In the award both teams continue to show their expertise in the game by being awarded the Think Award for best programming to 68689A and Excellence Award to 68689X for overall performance in match play, ranking, notebooking and skills. 

 

68689G in elimination playoffs selected 9078X from Griffith Middle School to become their alliance partner. This particular team lost early in the round of 16 to 9413C and 43125B. 

 

68689V in elimination playoffs selected 9078N from Griffith Middle School to become their alliance partner. Kids won their round of 16 against 51521E and 51521A with a score of 92 to 38. Kids won again in Quarterfinals aganist 9413C and 43125B with a score of 73 to 57. Yet, they lost aganist the League finalist 2822D and 2822A with a score 128 to 60. Not bad for 6th graders that had issues building and generally working as a team. They also scored 3rd for skills with a total score of 228 not bad for first timers in VRC!

 

68689E in elimination playoffs selected 91625A from Brea Middle School to become their alliance partner. Girls won their Round of 16 against 2822E and 2822F with a score of 84 to 83! The girls lost in the Quarterfinals against 68689X and 68689A with a score of 142 to 57. 68689E ranked#11 in skills with a total score of 178 not to bad for a new team!

 

68689D in elimination playoffs selected 94773A from Rancho Starbucks Middle School to become their alliance partner. This 6th grade team lost in the Round of 16 against 91625B and 91625C with a score of 96 to 45. This is one of the developmental teams and I hope they learned some skills that will carry over to next year.

This is a game within the game. Object is to score as many points as possible within the 1 minute timeline while attempting it solo. 

 

This year we did not focus too much on skills as we had a difficult time clustering the triballs in area constantly. However, with all this and programming issues they ended in the top 1/3 in the world for middle school. 

 

68689X - Ranked #216 in the World - Combined score 261 | Program 115 | Driver 146

68689V - Ranked #392 in the World - Combined score 228 | Program 112 | Driver 116

68689A - Ranked #441 in the World - Combined score 222 | Program 73 | Driver 149

68689E - Ranked #794 in the World - Combined score 178 | Program 87 | Driver 91

68689G - Ranked #817 in the World - Combined score 175 | Program 83 | Driver 92

68689D - Ranked #2613 in the World - Combined score 15 | Program 0 | Driver 15