On Saturday, January 15, 2011, the Green Egg Robotics team participated in its first tournament of the 2010 – 2011 Vex Robotics season. This was the first tournament in which Leland was not able to attend. The team of James, Kieran and mentors, Josef and Bill traveled to compete in the Leominster Invitational tournament hosted by friends at Leominster Youth Robotics. 21 teams representing four states were in attendance.
G.E.R. went undefeated on the day with a record of 11 wins, no losses, and one tie. It was not a day of smooth sailing for the team despite the impressive record. Fred IV, this year's newest team member, opened the day in the very first match of the tournament with mechanical problems. Fortunately for the team, the robot was able to score on two goals before the team abandoned further attempts to score, and played defense for the remainder of the match. After a minor fix, Fred IV was back and fully operational for the rest of the day.
Green Egg Robotics managed to finish the qualifying round undefeated as the number two seed, second to an efficient scoring robot from Scituate high school. During the alliance picking, the Scituate team chose to pick a robot from their own high school as their first pick. G.E.R picked old friend and former alliance partner from last year's Massachusetts State Championship alliance, Plan B. To round out the alliance, Green Egg Robotics chose a Mansfield Middle School (CT) robot which had a very strong showing in the preliminary rounds.
This alliance proved to be too strong for opposing alliances during the elimination rounds. The Green Egg alliance of three managed to go 6-0-1 in the elimination rounds. Fred IV's loose connection from the battery to the brain nearly resulted in the loss during the semifinals. However, thanks to strong play by the Mansfield team, it ended in a tie, despite the lone robot needing to fight off two opposing robots.
This tournament win qualifies the team for the Vex World Championship for the third time in as many years. This year's world championship will be held in a new venue at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Plan B placed first in the robot skills competition while Millbury high school robotics team took home the Excellence Award.
