“Believe it, then achieve it.” This is a fitting mantra for the Green Egg Robotics team for the 2009 VRC World Championship event. The (not so) little engine that could, Fred II and his team of drivers, coaches and scouts willed their way to win the VRC world championship trophy this past weekend, May 1st-2nd, in Dallas, Texas. 260 teams from around the world sporting the most successful robots of the 2008-2009 Vex Robotics Competition season gathered in the Dallas Convention Center for intense battles to determine the 2009 World Champion.
The game for the 2008-2009 season was Elevation. Elevation features 2 allied teams playing against 2 other allied teams on a 12 X 12 foot playing field. The object of the game is to score as many points in the allotted time of 2 minutes and 20 seconds. During the first 20 seconds of the match the robot is programmed for autonomous play so it is strictly robot against robot without any control given by the drivers. The winner of the autonomous section is determined and awarded bonus points. The remaining 2 minutes of the match the driver controls the movements. Each team has 1-2 drivers controlling the movements of the robots around the field.
Teams can score points by putting 3 inch foam cubes into triangular goals around the periphery of the playing field or by flipping a large bonus cube to their alliance’s color at the end of the match. Bonus points are awarded to the team that “caps” the goals with their alliance team’s color. They can also score points by being “king of the hill” on an elevated platform at the end of the match.
The 260 teams were split into 2 divisions of 130 teams called Science and Technology. The Green Egg Robotics team finished the qualifying rounds with a record of 5 wins and 1 loss. This put them in 16th place in the Science Division at the end of preliminaries going into alliance picking for the playoffs. Despite being positioned in 16th they were being “courted” by several higher ranked teams to be an alliance partner. Only the top 8 teams choose alliance partners. Teams chosen outside the top 8 have the option of accepting the invitation to play or to decline and not play. Green Egg Robotics, the Atlantic Coast Champion captain was chosen as the top draft pick overall in the first round by the #1 ranked team, Spur-Flys from California. They chose ELCO Red as the #1 2nd round draft pick to round out their alliance. ELCO Red was part of the Winning alliance at the Tournament of the Americas a month earlier.The Spur-Fly alliance chose Green Egg Robotics to be the anchor team for the playoffs which meant that it would play in all matches. The Green Egg robot’s consistency, defensive power and ability to score points from autoloader cubes was a factor in the decision.
ELCO Red was assigned to play in the opening and 3rd match of each series if necessary. ELCO’s autonomous program consistency and multi-goal scoring ability made the Spur-Fly alliance teaming with Green Egg Robotics nearly unbeatable in the playoff autonomous rounds. The Spur-Flys team chose to play the 2nd match of each series. The Spur-Flys alliance managed to win the first round in 2 straight games and moved on to the divisional semi finals to play a super team of 3 scoring machines from China. The Chinese teams swept the World Championship in 2008. Their divisional semi-finalist team was captained by team 8203a from Nanhai, China and their alliance picks were teams were numbers 8164 and 8199, both from Shanghai, China. The battles were fierce with aggressive defensive play by the #1 alliance. The #1 alliance was able to shut down the robots from China in the first and 3rd matches of the series. The Chinese alliance won the 2nd round by playing strong defense against the Green Egg Robotics team slowing down their scoring of cubes.
ELCO Red was assigned to play in the opening and 3rd match of each series if necessary. ELCO’s autonomous program consistency and multi-goal scoring ability made the Spur-Fly alliance teaming with Green Egg Robotics nearly unbeatable in the playoff autonomous rounds. The Spur-Flys team chose to play the 2nd match of each series. The Spur-Flys alliance managed to win the first round in 2 straight games and moved on to the divisional semi finals to play a super team of 3 scoring machines from China. The Chinese teams swept the World Championship in 2008. Their divisional semi-finalist team was captained by team 8203a from Nanhai, China and their alliance picks were teams were numbers 8164 and 8199, both from Shanghai, China. The battles were fierce with aggressive defensive play by the #1 alliance. The #1 alliance was able to shut down the robots from China in the first and 3rd matches of the series. The Chinese alliance won the 2nd round by playing strong defense against the Green Egg Robotics team slowing down their scoring of cubes.
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| Photo courtesy of Vex Robotics |
The Science Division finals pitted the Spur-Flys alliance against the #7 seed from the group, a team captained by team 211a, the Robodogs from Ontario, Canada and including 2 teams from Texas called the Robowranglers. In the opening match of the series 211a devised a strategy to slow down the Green Egg Robotics team by removing ½ of their supply of autoloader cubes from the field and emptying them outside of the playing field. The strategy worked as the Spur-Flys alliance opened up an early lead but ran out of easy cubes to score as the match neared the end. The #7 seed won the match 38-32 in a close upset.
In the second match of the Divisional finals series team 148 had an unfortunate malfunction so 211a was pitted against 2 robots, Fred II and the green painted robot from the Spur-Flys. After securing a large lead early in the match the #1 alliance partners positioned themselves for the final moments of the match to trap team 211a from moving out of the corner. The final score of that match was 44-15.
The final match of the Divisional series was a rematch of the 1st of the series. The Robodog alliance attacked with the same strategy as they used in the first game emptying the Spur-Flys’ autoloader source. This time the #1 alliance was prepared and the Green Egg Robotics robot followed the CAMS robot around the field capping goals in favor of the Spur-Flys and then played strong defense against 211a to seal the match. Team 404, ELCO Red delivered the knock out blows with a killer autonomous and smart consistent play throughout the match.
The World Championship Final matched the Spur-Flys alliance against the champion and #2 seed from the Technology Division, captained by Kamikaze II from Los Angeles, CA. Also rounding out the alliance were 2 teams from the California Academy of Math and Sciences from Carson, CA. The Spur-Flys alliance team of Green Egg Robotics and ELCO Red were able to match the Technology Division champion cube for cube and in the end were able to win the first match by a score of 57-17.
Green Egg Robotics team member Leland requested and was given a new crystal from the field officials for the receiver for the final match to correct the interference issue which proved to do the trick. The match started with the Spur-Flys alliance partners winning the autonomous with both robots working to perfection to score in 3 goals. As in the 1st match of the series they were able to match the Technology division champion cube for cube and ended up finishing the match with Fred II claiming “king of the hill” on the elevated platform to punctuate the win. The final score was a playoff high of 60-18 in favor of the Spur-Flys alliance.
