2021-2022 VEX Robotics Competition - Tipping Point

 

Vlog of World Championships for team 68689B and 68689X

 

 

 

 

 

I cannot say anymore how well these kids performed at Worlds this year. I'm just proud to be part of this year's team and I hope they will continue to foster what they have achieved this year. Thank you Baldwin Park USD in supporting our community and our students so they are equipped to compete on this world stage.

 

 

Thank you BPUSD for supporting these kids to travel during a pandemic. They sure learned a lot and explored what it is like to be an out of state student. US Create will always be a great platform for competing on a world stage and experience what a marathon session feels like. 

 

 

 

Another amazing day for 68689 BP STEM Academy. We had the opportunity to have all 4 teams participate at this State Championships. The fun part is that for team Z this would be there second and only event of the season. I'm glad they got to experience this level as a 6th grade team. The other teams had a rough time as the match ups were a bit off as some matches were just not evenly matched. But these kids really worked through some adversity. 

 

Team A has been beaten by themselves as they could not get their partners to follow through with their plan. Several matches they were leading but last minute errors by their partners cost them some easy wins. But, by the end of the day they grouped up with team B and went into elimination rounds. The end of the day this team brought home the "Judges Award" for their outstanding work on the field for this day.

 

Team B had a pretty good day on the field. Raising high on the leader board they beat all expectations from their opponents that took them for granted. They did made it to the elimination round with team A. Their hope was to reuse their winning strategies from league with their practiced double parking. But, it did not work well as they were under pressure and under time. Their season might have come to a close in the round of 16.

 

Team X had another pretty lousy day. Four of their matches were lopsided as their partners could not engage with the field items well and both opponents were will functioning. They ended low on their ranking for the day and was selected by the Z team. They did get couple lucky breaks as they did win the Skills Challenge and became 1 of the California Champions and will represent California at the World Championships in Dallas, Texas.

 

 

 

 

68689A team had a rough day was ranked #39 with a record of 1-6-0 and 3th in the skills ranking for the day with a score of 260. Girls just had some really bad match up, like their alliance partners driving over to the opponents platform the last second of the match, etc... They just had one of those off days and was not selected into the elimination round.

 

68689B team had an exceptional day was ranked #5 with a record of 6-1-0 and 7th in the skills ranking for the day with a score of 220. These kids were hot today! Almost had an undefeated record, and the robot was running without errors even on autonomous. This batch of students needs some more refinement time on their interview process as it was apparent they were not running like an well oiled machine. B team formed an alliance with 8838A Robohawks from Irvine and won the round of 16 against 298A and 43088P, and lost in quarterfinals against 7700B and 92620A.

 

68689X team had also an exceptional day was ranked #4 with a record of 6-1-0 and 2th in the skills ranking for the day with a score of 320. These kids still on fire from the previous week and are hungry for more. Did not have anything more in the gas tank for Skills and Canyon High team had an impressive score of 540, but they showed that they had the stuff to be on top still in the World Standing, as #8 in the World. In the elimination round they group with 15442C Canyon High team; round of 16 won against 9078X and 9078Z, quarterfinals won against 9078Z and 9078X, semifinals barely beat out 4863M and 7700E, and lost in the finals against 3324B and 3324S mainly caused by a blown claw port during the beginning of the match. Overall, not a bad performance from all teams. 

    

 

 

 

As being a recovery year many tournaments and competitions that were norms did not come back. So we had to fill in our season with some mixed middle school and high school school tournaments. Again, players do not get better by not having the experience on the battle field. We went in this tournament with some experience under our belt from our league play; but we knew we were not meant to perform well verse more experienced high school teams. We not only brought 3 teams but we brought along our 6th grade team 68689Z to their first and only tournament of the year. So, of all teams had some pressure to perform well.

 

To our surprise each team conquered their own goals for the tournament. 68689Z our 6th grade team scored 220 points in skills to be ranked 400ish in the World! 68689Z was ranked #28 with a record of 2-4-0 and 8th in the skills ranking for the day. 68689Z in elimination playoffs selected 93060B from Briggs Elementary to become their alliance partner. In the Round of 16 our kids went against the seed#2 team 3324A and 6149B a high school team. Miraculously, 68689Z beat out the high school team by out driving and moving majority of the mobile goals to their own side. In the quarterfinals 68689Z went against 68689B and 404Z and lost to their upper classmen team. Still a major accomplishment for a noobie team. 

 

68689B had some difficult time today. Out of the three member team only one showed up to play. One member was on quarantine the night before, the other teammate could not get a COVID test results in time for the event. So I had to move Michael from 68689X to 68689B to become his drive coach and link so Dom would not be alone for the day. 68689B was ranked #12 with a record of 4-2-0 and 5th in the skills ranking for the day. 68689B in elimination playoffs selected 404Z from Woodland Hills to become their alliance partner. In Round of 16, they beat 76607Z and 6022A, in the quarterfinals they also beat 68689Z and 93060B by moving all the mobile goals away from their goal line, but met their match in the semifinals to 8771Z and 3324Y.

 

68689A had some difficult time today. Started out the first match not having all their wires connected correctly costing them to have their claw not to work. But, with some technical help from the refs continued throughout the day. 68689A was ranked #22 with a record of 3-3-0 and 6th in the skills ranking for the day. 68689A in elimination playoffs was selected by 99999J from one of the home teams to become their alliance partner. In Round of 16, girls had a difficult time driving up the platform and lost in the round of 16 to 48884A and 76607B.

 

68689X had everything to prove as they last to their sister teams the weeks before. And they brought it to this tournament. With a gracious schedule 68689X went undefeated 6-0 beating out many high school team and had a higher autonomous and a harder schedule of play to become ranked #1 with a record of 6-0-0 and 2nd in the skills ranking on the day. 68689X in elimination playoffs selected 471X from Woodland Hills to become their alliance partner. They go all the way and win the tournament at McBride with 471X. 68689X learned a lot from this tournament on how to interact and earn the respect of higher playing teams from high school. To the icing of the cake they also win the "Excellence Award" for the middle school division. Earning them a spot at the State Championships later in the season.

 

 

 

 

BP STEM Academy formerly known as Jerry D. Holland Middle School or Santa Fe Fundamental School merged and now one campus 3-8 school. With a year and a half hiatus from competing our students were hungry for some robot vs robot action. We started with 3 teams: 68689A - two all girls 8th grade team, 68689B - three all boys 8th grade team, and 68689X - four all boys 8th grade team with some returning 6th grade players. All 3 teams did well throughout the league. 68689X came in ranked 1st with a record of 17-3-0, 68689B ranked 7th with a record of 12-8-0 and 68689A ranked 14th with a record of 9-10-1. 

 

68689X in elimination playoffs selected 2822C from Spartan Design to become their alliance partner. This particular team was doing well and advanced all the way to Semifinals where they met their nemesis; 68689A and 68689B. 68689X also performed well in the Robot Skills Challenge driving with an impressive score of 310points first in the World for a middle school team in January and a program score of 80 points giving them a combined score of 390 points which was at the time ranked 9th in the World! These kids did also win the Robot Skills Challenge for the league with that impressive score.

 

68689B in the elimination playoffs selected their sister team 68689A to become their alliance partner. This was a strategic play as a pair they have recently learned how to double park or have two robots at the end of the match park on the balancing platform. 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 showed the league their secret weapon the "Double Park". In all three final matches both 68689A and 68689B double parked in each and every single match to secure their Tournament Champion trophy. 

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.

 

68689X - Ranked #34 in the World - Combined score 430 | Program 120 | Driver 310

68689B - Ranked #170 in the World - Combined score 310 | Program 60 | Driver 250

68689A - Ranked #319 in the World - Combined score 260 | Program 40 | Driver 220

68689Z - Ranked #482 in the World - Combined score 220 | Program 20 | Driver 220