By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
The brand new Moapa Valley High School Robotics team went into its second tournament last weekend in Las Vegas. The team, made up entirely of MVHS freshmen, went up against 52 teams from all across the state of Nevada.
The Moapa team outperformed all expectations at the tournament, winning a berth in next month’s State Tournament and taking away a coveted Judges Award trophy for its performance.
The team of about a half dozen students has spent countless after-school hours constructing and performing their own Vex robot. The machine is then taken to tournaments to compete in a challenge called the Tower Takeover.
In the Tower Takeover, team robots score points by collecting blocks of various colors on a 12’x12’ playing area and stacking the blocks in their team’s cube areas.
Individual teams at the competition are paired up into two alliance teams for each match. These alliances work together against an opponent alliance to compete for points on the playing field.
The tournament starts with qualifying rounds where teams have their alliance partners chosen for them. Then it proceeds to the final rounds where teams can go out and form their own alliances with other teams at the tournament.
The Moapa team fared well in the qualifying rounds playing with randomly chosen alliance partners. This entailed a series of seven different matches with seven different partners.
“Some of our partners were good and others we carried,” said MVHS Robotics teacher Bryan Linford. “But it went well.”
When the dust had settled the Moapa team was ranked in fourth place for the tournament. That was despite some technical problems that the team had with its robot in the latter matches.
But this placement was enough to qualify the Moapa team for the state tournament to be held in March.
Linford commented that the his team’s performance had team leaders from many much more seasoned programs sitting up and taking notice.
“It caught the attention of a lot of other teams that have been around for much longer than we have,” Linford said. “People were pretty impressed that we were just a first year team made up of freshmen.
They were saying, ‘Hey, watch those guys!’. So we made something of a splash.”
In the finals rounds, the competition was whittled down to 16 team finalists.
The Moapa team easily won its initial match.
But in the quarterfinal match troubles arose for the team. Their alliance partner team was disqualified because their robot did not meet precise specifications for competition. So the Moapa team had to face the match alone against a two-team alliance.
Then the Moapa robot started experiencing technical problems again while on the field of battle. The team ended up losing the quarterfinal match which ended the day’s competition for the Moapa team.
“It was so frustrating!” Linford said. “Because if the robot hadn’t broke, we still would have probably beaten them even without an alliance partner. It was an awesome tournament!”
Even with the loss, the team had attracted the attention of the tournament judges. The Moapa team was recognized with the Judges Award trophy. This award is presented to a team that the judges determine is deserving of special recognition. Criteria can include exemplary efforts and perseverance at an event or accomplishments deserving of recognition that are not fitting under existing awards.
“The team did really well for a first year program,” Linford said. “I didn’t think we would be where we are right now. And I don’t think anyone expected us to be going to state. That’s pretty exciting.”
Team members at this tournament included robot driver Alex Villezcas, programmer Iain McMurray, pit crew and technical support Joey Boss and Joey Barnes, team captain Cassandra Nelson and general assistant Cooper Olsen.
Funding for the MVHS Robotics program comes from a generous grant from Dr. Ann Rice and the Get Smart program.
