#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.