We did pretty well today! After our 2nd place ranking yesterday, we entered into elimination rounds. There was a 32-team bracket, and we beat our first opponents in the round-of-64 and round-of-32, but unfortunately lost to a team from Philadelphia in the round-of-16 in a 2-1 set of 3 matches. It was pretty infuriating for us to be knocked out that early in the eliminations, but we’re taking the loss well knowing that we placed 2nd after qualifications.
However, we received several commendations from the judges. Firstly, we received a nomination for the Amaze Award (the award for overall build and programming quality of the robots). We were also nominated for the Excellence Award (the top award presented, recognising overall excellence in all aspects of competition), which was ultimately awarded to the Massey University team. They were also the tournament champions, which has furthered New Zealand’s reputation on the global stage. Finally, we were presented the Judges Award (a team deserving of special recognition from the Judges), which means we have a pretty big trophy to bring back!
We also gave out an internal award – Most Valuable Team Member, which was presented to Cameron Edwards for his hard work and dedication – without him, we probably wouldn’t have the two robots we brought with us to worlds. We also wanted to thank the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Auckland, for allowing us to use up space in their labs and for allowing us to their their Vex parts so we could compete! We’d also like to thank Kristin School, Lynfield College, and Avondale College for their support in helping us obtain parts and boxes for taking our robots to the US.
We’re really excited about the new game, Gateway, and have already started brainstorming ideas for how to tackle the new College Challenge. We’ll be keen to see everyone again at the World Champs in 2012!
Edit: We have a bunch of match videos uploaded on youtube as well: check https://www.aura.org.nz/archives/581