By Vivian Fang
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On Oct. 11 and 12, MHS VEX Robotics teams 1973A, 1973E and 1973F participated in the Maui VEX Robotics Tournament. All three teams advanced to the elimination rounds and were able to win three slots to the state tournament, with four out of six teams qualified thus far.
“I’m very pleased with my students’ performances,” said VEX Robotics adviser Timothy Pregana, “The investments were great, we put in a lot of time and effort and we came home with three trophies.”
Twenty-eight teams around the state participated in the tournament, which was hosted at Maui High School. Two MHS teams, 1973A and 1973E, placed first and eighth respectively. Although Freshman Raena Anne Baetiong, driver of 1973F, did not place, she still secured her spot at states. “(Driving) was a big learning curve. Paying attention while doing something else, multitasking, (is difficult),” said Baetiong. “This was the first match she’d ever driven and after each round in the competition and she got better and better. She performed well,” added Pregana.
Matches are held between two alliances (groups of three teams). In regular matches, alliances are sorted randomly. However, in the elimination rounds, alliances are formed by seeds. “The top seed gets to pick one team. Then they go through the other eight seeds and then the top seed gets to pick another team,” explained Senior Clayton Dailey, 1973A. Because Dailey was the top seed, the first alliance consisting of all Mililani members was formed.
The usage of alliances replaces the rivalry between teams with strategic collaboration, dubbed “coopertition.” Emphasis is also placed on the synergy and flexibility of robots. “My robot right now is a very fast, light, scoring robot,” said Dailey, “But it cannot hang, which is bad in some aspects. However, I can pick somebody who can hang. We’re complementary to each other and it works out very (well).”
Even with a qualification for the state competition, the teams still strive to continuously improve their robots. “The robots that won at the beginning of the year, I call them the A-bots. Right now if those robots went to the state championships they’d probably be a B-bot or C+-bot,” said Pregana, “Robotics is just like NFL and NASCAR. The game doesn’t change, but the strategy does. So even though the rules are the same, you’re always trying to improve your robot to get a slight edge over your competition.”
However, changes made during this downtime are not necessarily major. “I don’t want to change too much between these regional competitions because there’s not much time,” said Dailey, “(So) I don’t do a whole redesign. I only focus on Autonomous (Mode) and the little improvements.”
The qualifying teams hope to win slots to the world competition at the state competition, which will be held on Dec. 21 to 22 at Honolulu Community College.
