GER and Sparticles Team Up For Back To Back New England Championships

On March 19, 2011, the Green Egg Robotics Team took one step closer to Orlando, Florida and the World Championship by way of the 2011 New England VRC Championship.  43 teams representing high schools from throughout New England were in attendance at the event held in Worcester, Massachusetts at QCC.  GER was competing in their first "home" competition of the year having traveled as far North as Bangor, ME and as far South as Maryland in their previous competitions this season.

Fred IV (version 4) had a fine day at home on this day.  Changes made to improve speed and power in the drive system proved effective, as did tweaks for increasing efficiency in gathering goals.  Fred IV went through the Qualifying rounds undefeated although did run in a snag (literally) during a qualifier against team 817, Sparticles during the autonomous period which had them intertwined for nearly half the match.  One spectator in reaction to the incident said, "It reminds me of when 2 teenagers with braces try to kiss."  That match ended with a tie score once robots were able to free themselves.

GER finished qualifiers as the 3rd seed.  The first and second seeds made their selections leaving GER free to pick old friends the Sparticles, Team 817 as their first pick.  Light Speed Robotics, Team 3010A filled out the alliance with their unique mobile goal scoring design that impressed spectators during the qualifiers.  

The GER alliance moved through quarters and semis undefeated despite mechanical problems that troubled team 3010A in the quarters.  The finals series pitted the GER alliance against a team captained by a determined team from South High School, 2606B.  Their alliance included a strong defensive robot which had an eerie resemblance to Fred IV from Vermont's team 4886A, and a low hanger from Holden's team 998.  Match 1 went to the GER alliance but match 2 went to the South High alliance as team 3010A's robot suffered from mechanical issues after the autonomous period.  2606B and 998 proved too much for team 44's robot in the 2 v 1 match.  The final match saw intense defensive work from team 4886 on  Fred IV.  Despite the efforts of 4886,  Fred IV managed to load 4 goals under the ladder.  817 worked their magic on the outer walls and the GER alliance ended up winning the final match 40-18.

NE Champs! Teams 44, 817 and 3010

The win marked the second year in a row that GER has teamed up with 817 to win the New England Championship title.  Also, the win capped the 4th consecutive tournament championship win in as many entered this season.  Team 817 was the recipient of the prestigious Excellence award.

Next up for GER is the 2011 VRC World Championship to be held in Orlando, FL on April 14-16, 2011.

#3 Seeded Alliance Wins 2011 VMAC Tournament!

Neitzche once said, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."  If that is true then the GER team walked away from the 2011 Vex Mid Atlantic Championship with renewed strength and vigor after competing in a grueling, grinding  2 day competition featuring past and present state champions from several Eastern states.  GER made the journey to Westminster, Maryland on March 4th and 5th, 2011 to square off against 43 competitive teams in a very well run event. 

Fred IV, previously undefeated in its 2 previous outings had moments of brilliance throughout the qualifying rounds.  However, the goal carrying robot also had moments of mechanical failures that had the GER team working frantically in the pits almost the entire tournament problem solving and re-designing newly exposed weaknesses in Fred IV.  At the end of qualifying rounds Fred IV was renewed, re-designed and ready for eliminations despite a qualifying round record of 9-6.

Team 44's robot was chosen in the 1st round of alliance picking by the 3rd seed, Super Sonic Sparks, team 24A.  42A, Mostly Harmless was chosen as the 2nd alliance pick.  The alliance worked well together with robots complimenting each other's strengths and limitations. The Sparks alliance breezed through quarterfinals but ran into heavy resistance in the semis when matched up against the 2nd seed alliance captained by team 677.  In a rare occurrence, the 2nd seeded alliance DQ'ed in both semi final matches due to technicalities giving the #3 seeded alliance a berth in the finals against the #1 seed.

The top seed was captained by another Sparks team, 24C which had a speedy robot with a very effective autonomous program.  The alliance was rounded out by 2 teams from ACME robotics, 12A and 12K.  12A recently went on to captain the Vex Robotics  Tournament champion in the 2011 VRC National Championship.   

2011 VMAC Winning Alliance with Judges

The first match of the finals featured teams 24A and 44 vs. 24C and 12A.  The pace of the match was very fast as all 3 of the robots aside from Fred IV were built for speed.  Goal ownership rapidly changed on the outside walls of the field throughout the match as 3 robots zipped around scoring/de-scoring tubes from the posts.  Fred IV gathered 4 movable goals from the floor and locked them in under the ladder for points.  In the end the #3 seed won the first match.  24A and 42A teamed together to take the 2nd match giving their alliance the 2011 VMAC Tournament Championship. 

Green Egg Robotics was awarded the Innovate Award during the competition by the judges.  24C won the Excellence Award.
Next up for the GER team is the New England VRC Tournament scheduled for 3/19/11 at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Massachusetts.  Fred IV has undergone many significant upgrades since the VMAC championship to improve performance and efficiency.

The Maine Event 2011

On Saturday, February 5, 2011, the Green Egg Robotics Team (a.k.a. GER) made a last-minute schedule change due to the weather and headed up to Bangor, Maine to compete in the Maine State Vex Robotics Championship.   17 teams competed in the Bangor Civic Center auditorium on a beautiful day up in North country.  Five of the originally scheduled 22 teams canceled due to weather related concerns about travel.  Once again, the UMaine run event was impressive in its organization and commitment to developing the Vex robotics program in the state of Maine.

Infinite Improbability, Cape Robotics and GER

This was the second event of the Roundup season for GER. The team packed up Fred IV at 2:30 AM and arrived at the Bangor Civic Center at 7:30 AM ready for competition.  The 2 elevated fields were running matches all day long.  In the end Fred IV went undefeated on the day with an 11-0-0 record keeping the undefeated season record intact.  The winning alliance was made up of GER (Team 44), Infinite Improbability Robotics (Team 1764A) from Yarmouth, Maine, and a middle school team, Cape Robotics (56B) from Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Infinite Improbability won the Excellence award and the Create Award.  Cape Robotics (56B) won the Programming Skills and Greely High School (377) won the Robot Skills Award.  GER won its very first Amaze award.

Fred IV will be returning to competition on March 4 and 5, 2011 at the mid-Atlantic Vex Championship in Westminster, Maryland.   This will be the largest tournament that the team has competed in this year with top-notch teams representing Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey scheduled to compete. The GER robot will be sporting more than 10 new upgrades from the robot that competed in Maine.