MVHS Robotics Win Tournament Championship

By ISAAC LINFORD

The Progress

The Moapa Valley High School Robotics program took home two trophies on Saturday, November 4 at Green Valley High School. The tournament had each team play 9 matches throughout the day. The MVHS Dread Pirates team left the field of battle as Tournament Champion while the MVHS Marauders team achieved Tournament Finalist distinction.

The competition proved challenging as both teams had 3 wins and 3 losses during the qualifying matches before eliminations. Despite the odds, both teams climbed up past quarterfinals and semifinals, facing each other to decide the championship in finals.

In between matches the teams talked with other teams at the event to gain alliance favor. During qualifiers, the 2 teams against 2 teams format is random, but during eliminations teams select their alliance partners based on ranking and choice.

The MVHS teams competed against each other and 18 other teams from all over Las Vegas and Henderson. This included teams from Green Valley, Faith Lutheran, Coronado, Pinecrest Academy, and Northwest Career and Technical Academy.

Competitors also played for the Robot Skills Champion award, given to the team with the highest combined autonomous coding skills and driver skills. In this part of the competition, the Dread Pirates ranked 4th and the Marauders ranked 5th.

The MVHS teams focused mainly on match play, working to improve their skills score for the next competition and for their world skills ranking.

Currently, the Dread Pirates are ranked 197th in the world and the Marauders are 273rd. The teams plan to practice and code to increase their skills scores until their next competition at Vista School in Ivins, Utah on December 2. Skills scores helps the teams qualify for events.

The Dread Pirates were allied with team Perditor from Henderson, to the surprise of the other teams in attendance. Perditor was ranked 1st in qualifiers while Dread Pirates ranked 11th, but the teams knew their robots and teams would work well together despite their difference in ranking.

“We had a great time competing with Moapa Valley High at the first state qualifier of the season,” said JohnDavid Abe, team captain and driver for Perditor Robotics. “Such an amazing team, and we are looking forward to future events with them!”

The Marauders became alliance partners with team Terminator from Faith Lutheran High School. During eliminations, they employed a strategy that was unique during the event, propelling themselves into finals to go against the Dread Pirates and Perditor. The final score was 145-72 in favor of the Dread Pirates and Perditor.

“What an amazing day,” said MVHS Robotics coach Bryan Linford. “Our teams really dug deep and pulled it together for an incredible comeback. I’ve never seen a recovery like that happen before! What a defining moment for our students.”