It was a very busy weekend with 18 Olympia School District robotics teams competing in three different competitions. All Middle Schools in the Olympia School District fielded Varsity Robotics Teams for this year’s international FIRST LEGO League (FLL) competition, with 11 teams entered into the 96 team, two-day, Regional Qualifiers. Just like varsity sports, these after-school teams are an opportunity for experienced students to take their Robotics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math skills to the next level. Reeves middle school has three FLL teams, while ORLA Jefferson, Marshall and Washington middle schools have two teams each. Three OSD teams won awards, and two of these teams earned berths at the Washington State FLL Semi-Finals (details below).
Also, this past weekend OSD hosted the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) South Washington Inter-League Championships at Jefferson Middle School. The 17 teams from Thurston, Mason and Gray’s Harbor Counties in our Olympia FTC League were joined by teams from the Vancouver/Portland area to determine which teams advance to the State Washington State Championships. OSD has seven FTC teams, with three from Olympia High School and two each from Avanti and Capital high schools. Three OSD teams from two schools earned berths at the FTC State Championships (details below).
At the Spanaway FLL Regional Qualifiers, our OSD teams had their chance to demonstrate their hard work on this year’s challenge, Nature’s Fury. The teams were required to design, build and program autonomous robots to complete several time-sensitive Robot Game missions, as well as research, develop and present their Project solution to an engineering problem. This video describes Nature’s Fury Robot Game, while this video shows a robot completing the missions from the previous year’s game (Body Forward). The process for developing the research Project for Nature’s Fury is described in this video.
On Saturday, the Leg’ O Lords and Cubic Crusaders from Marshall Middle School, the Alpha Techno Pod and Destruction Pod from ORLA, and the Brick Bulldogs and Team Delta from Washington Middle School went up against 42 other teams at Spanaway Middle School. The next day, the Electrons and Insert Name Here from Jefferson Middle School joined the Sparkly Unicorn Ninjas, Team Waffles and Team Hypersonic from Reeves Middle School to go up against 43 other contenders. All our teams performed very well.
At the end of the weekend, OSD took home 3 awards:
- Reeves’ all-girl Sparkly Unicorn Ninjas won the Robot Design award
- Jefferson’s Insert Name Here won the Project Award
- Jefferson’s Electrons captured the coveted Champion’s Award for the best over-all performance in all areas of the competition
In addition, both Jefferson teams earned berths at the FLL Western Washington State Semi-finals in Mill Creek on Sunday, February 9. Information on this event is available here.
Congratulations to all our FLL Varsity Robotics Teams and good luck to the Electrons and Insert Name Here in Mill Creek!!
Meanwhile this weekend, our high school FTC teams competed in this year’s FTC challenge, “Block Party” (see this video animation.) This is an exciting game which combines strategy and technical challenges for teams to sort out and prioritize as they design and build a Tetrix-based robot programmed in Robot-C to tackle this year’s game. The robot must perform autonomously for the first part of the match, then under two-person remote control for the remainder of the two-and-a-half minute match. The competition takes place in a 12 foot square arena with four robots operating simultaneously as two randomly selected alliances.
This season, OSD fielded seven FTC teams, with Avanti High School’s BGIP (team #4448) and MIP (#7111), Capital High School’s Broken Motors (#7112) and Capital Gear Grinders (#5061) and Olympia High School’s team DERPA (#7113), Oly Cow (#6424) and One and Oly (#7973). These seven teams, along with 10 others from Thurston, Mason and Gray’s Harbor Counties competed in a series of Olympia FTC League Events to determine their seeding going into the South Washington Championships. Twelve teams from the Vancouver/Portland area complete the 29 team field for Saturday.
Teams spent the morning with Judge Interviews and preparing their robots for competition. Around noon, six more qualifying rounds (44 matches) were held to settle on the final seeding of the mixed leagues for the Elimination Round. Four teams would advance to the State Championships based on the Judged Awards and four more from the Elimination Round game play. All the OSD teams did well in both the judging and qualifying matches, with two OSD teams, DERPA (#7113), BGIP (#4448) placing second and third respectively, thus earning them the right to be captains of one of four Elimination Round alliances.
By the time alliance selection was complete, two Olympia High School teams, DERPA (#7113) and Oly Cow (#6424), were members of the second seed alliance and both Avanti and Capital high schools, BGIP (#4448) and Capital Gear Grinders (#5061), were members of the the third seeded alliance. Unfortunately, the second and third seeds play each other in the first round of elimination, so all the OSD teams were pitted against each other before the finals. The Avanti/Capital allianace won the first match, but then the Olympia alliance rallied to win two in a row in the the best two-out-of-three Elimination Round. The OHS alliance then went on the the finals, losing a high scoring pair of matches to the top seeded alliance. However, DERPA (#7113), won a berth at the State Championships by captaining a finalist alliance team.
It then came down to the Judged Awards, and again OSD teams did very well. Avanti High School’s BGIP (#4448) was one of the Inpsire Award winners, recognized for their overall performance in all Judged categories and game play. Olympia High School’s Oly Cow (#6424) team won the Think Award, recognizing their proven engineering prowess. Both these awards also earned these teams a berth at the State Championships.
Congratulations to all our FTC Robotics Teams for an excellent season, and good luck to our three State-bound teams, Avanti’s BGIP (#4448) and Olympia’s DERPA (#7113) and Oly Cow (#6424) as they prepare for the January 26 event at Issaquah High School.
The complete results from the FTC South Washington Inter-League Championships are presented below:
Teams Eligible for Advancement
| Advancement Criteria | Team Number |
|---|---|
| 1. Inspire Award Winner | 4855 |
| 2. State Championship Winning Alliance Captain | 7013 |
| 3. Inspire Award Finalist 2 | 4092 |
| 4. State Championship Winning Alliance First Pick | 5604 |
| 5. Inspire Award Finalist 3 | 4448 |
| 6. State Championship Winning Alliance Second Pick | 5939 |
| 7. Think Award Winner | 6424 |
| 8. State Championship Finalist Alliance Captain | 7113 |
South WA Inter-League Championship
Ranking List
| Rank | Team | Team Name | QP | RP | Highest | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7013 | Hot Wired | 42 | 2064 | 356 | 6 |
| 2 | 7113 | DERPA | 37 | 1322 | 203 | 6 |
| 3 | 4448 | BGIP | 36 | 1290 | 159 | 6 |
| 4 | 5604 | ThunderBots | 35 | 1971 | 356 | 6 |
| 5 | 7705 | Radioactive Chinchillas | 34 | 1282 | 141 | 6 |
| 6 | 6424 | Oly Cow | 34 | 1250 | 236 | 6 |
| 7 | 4855 | Batteries in Black | 30 | 1684 | 241 | 6 |
| 8 | 3525 | Banks Bots | 27 | 1373 | 198 | 6 |
| 9 | 7829 | Mighty Soph’s | 27 | 1094 | 187 | 6 |
| 10 | 7299 | T-Wolf | 27 | 1053 | 243 | 6 |
| 11 | 6091 | Elma Robotics | 26 | 1418 | 185 | 6 |
| 12 | 4508 | E=MC Squirreled | 26 | 1035 | 155 | 6 |
| 13 | 7465 | Paper Blotter Outers | 24 | 1530 | 141 | 6 |
| 14 | 7742 | Jaktd Jadda | 24 | 1080 | 172 | 6 |
| 15 | 5939 | Team AFOOFA | 23 | 1836 | 199 | 6 |
| 16 | 6559 | Geared Reaction | 23 | 1445 | 157 | 6 |
| 17 | 5061 | Capital Gear Grinders | 23 | 1055 | 172 | 6 |
| 18 | 8030 | Steel Wings | 22 | 946 | 177 | 6 |
| 19 | 4131 | Manly Men of Machinery | 21 | 770 | 190 | 6 |
| 20 | 5938 | The Loose Screws | 20 | 1064 | 181 | 6 |
| 21 | 6421 | A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. | 19 | 1003 | 124 | 6 |
| 22 | 6493 | Roboticans | 18 | 1400 | 199 | 6 |
| 23 | 7111 | MIP | 18 | 1077 | 184 | 6 |
| 24 | 3838 | Thor | 16 | 944 | 131 | 6 |
| 25 | 7766 | Roboticans Too | 14 | 1221 | 241 | 6 |
| 26 | 7973 | One and Oly | 12 | 727 | 118 | 6 |
| 27 | 7112 | Broken Motors | 11 | 837 | 271 | 6 |
| 28 | 6415 | BazingaBots | 4 | 662 | 132 | 6 |
| 29 | 4092 | The Nanites | 3 | 464 | 212 | 6 |
QP (Total Qualification Points) – 2 Points for a WIN, 1 Point for a TIE, 0 Points for a LOSS.
RP (Total Ranking Points) – Ranking points are awarded using the losing alliance’s score in each match.
Highest (Highest Match Score) – The highest match score awarded to the team.
Awards Report
| Motivate Award |
|---|
| This Judged Award celebrates the Team that exemplifies the essence of the FIRST Tech Challenge Competition through Team spirit and enthusiasm. This Team shows their spirit through costumes and fun outfits, a Team cheer or outstanding spirit, or through their collective efforts to make FIRST known throughout their school or community. |
| The finalists for this award are: |
| Team 7742, Jaktd Jadda Team 4092, The Nanites |
| This is what the judges said about the winner of the Motivate Award: |
| The Motivate Award is presented to: |
| Team 6559, Geared Reaction from , |
| Connect Award |
|---|
| The Connect Award is presented to the Team that the Judges feel most connected with their local community and the engineering community. The best Team is more than the sum of its parts, and recognizes that their schools and communities play an essential part to their success. The recipient of this Award is recognized for helping the community understand FIRST, the FIRST Tech Challenge, and the Team itself. In addition, the Team that wins this Award is aggressively seeking engineers and exploring the opportunities available in the world of engineering, science, and technology. |
| The finalists for this award are: |
| Team 4092, The Nanites Team 4855, Batteries in Black |
| This is what the judges said about the winner of the Connect Award: |
| The Connect Award is presented to: |
| Team 5939, Team AFOOFA from , |
| Rockwell Collins Innovate Award |
|---|
| The Rockwell Collins Innovate Award celebrates a Team that not only thinks outside the box, but also has the ingenuity and inventiveness to make their designs come to life. This Award is given to the Team that the Judges feel has the most Innovative and Creative Robot design solution to the FIRST Tech Challenge to any or all specific Field Elements or components. Elements of this Award include elegant design, robustness, and ‘out of the box’ thinking with regard to design. This Award may address the design of the whole Robot or some sub-assembly component attached to the Robot. The creative component needs to work consistently, but a Robot does not have to work all of the time during Matches to be considered for this Award. The Team’s Engineering Notebook showed the design of the component(s) and the Team’s Robot, and described succinctly how the Team arrived at that solution. |
| The finalists for this award are: |
| Team 4448, BGIP Team 5939, Team AFOOFA |
| This is what the judges said about the winner of the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award: |
| The Rockwell Collins Innovate Award is presented to: |
| Team 7013, Hot Wired from , |
| PTC Design Award |
|---|
| The intent of the PTC Design Award is to expand the challenge, inspiring Teams to incorporate industrial design into their Robots. These elements can be shown in the simplicity of the design as it applies to the tasks, the look and feel of the Robot, and how the design allows us to think of Robots in new ways. The Design aspect must serve a function, but they should also differentiate the Robot in a unique fashion, not an easy task with a limited set of parts and Game challenge. |
| The finalists for this award are: |
| Team 6424, Oly Cow Team 5939, Team AFOOFA |
| This is what the judges said about the winner of the PTC Design Award: |
| The PTC Design Award is presented to: |
| Team 3525, Banks Bots from , |
| Think Award |
|---|
| The Think Award is given to the Team that the Judges feel best understood the role of the Engineering Notebook in the design process. The Engineering Notebook is the key reference for Judges to help them identify the most deserving Team. This Team’s Engineering Notebook focused on the design and build stages of the Team’s Robot. |
| The finalists for this award are: |
| Team 7013, Hot Wired Team 7113, DERPA |
| This is what the judges said about the winner of the Think Award: |
| The Think Award is presented to: |
| Team 6424, Oly Cow from , |
| Inspire Award |
|---|
| The Inspire Award is given to the Team that the Judges felt truly embodied the ‘challenge’ of the FTC program. This Team serves as an inspiration to what this program and the young minds involved, can accomplish. The Team that receives this Award has performed well in all Judging categories and was chosen by the Judges as a model FIRST Tech Challenge Team. The Judges used Match performance, observations made during interviews and in the Pit area, the Team’s Engineering Notebook, and performance on the Playing Field in determining the winner. |
| The finalists for this award are: |
| Second Place: Team 4092, The Nanites Third Place: Team 4448, BGIP |
| This is what the judges said about the winner of the Inspire Award: |
| The Inspire Award is presented to: |
| Team 4855, Batteries in Black from , |
| Promote Award |
|---|
| The Promote Award is given to the Team that is most successful in creating a compelling message for the public designed to change our culture and celebrate science, technology, engineering, and math. The FTC Public Service Announcement Video was evaluated by the Judges to determine the winner of this Award. Teams must present a thoughtful and high-quality video which appeals to the general public. |
| The finalists for this award are: |
| This is what the judges said about the winner of the Promote Award: |
| The Promote Award is presented to: |
| Compass Award |
|---|
| The Compass Award recognizes an adult Coach or Mentor who provided outstanding guidance and support for an FTC Team throughout the year. The winner of the Compass Award is determined from candidates nominated by FTC Team members via a 40-60 second video submission highlighting how their Mentor has helped them become an outstanding Team. |
| This is what the judges said about the winner of the Compass Award: |
| The Compass Award is presented to: |
| Control Award |
|---|
| The Control Award celebrates a Team that uses sensors and software to enhance the Robot’s functionality in the Field. This award is given to the Team that demonstrates innovative thinking in the control system to solve Game Challenges such as Autonomous operation, enhancing mechanical systems with intelligent control, or using sensors to achieve better results on the Field. |
| The finalists for this award are: |
| This is what the judges said about the winner of the Control Award: |
| The Control Award is presented to: |
| Judge’s Award |
|---|
| The Judges Award is given at the discretion of the judges to a team they have encountered whose unique efforts, performance or dynamics merit recognition, yet the team does not fit into any of the existing award categories. |
| The finalists for this award are: |
| This is what the judges said about the winner of the Judge’s Award: |
| The Judge’s Award is presented to: |
| Team 7299, T-Wolf from , |
| State Championship Winning Alliance |
|---|
| This is what the judges said about the winner of the State Championship Winning Alliance: |
| The State Championship Winning Alliance is presented to: |
| Alliance 1: 7013,5604,5939 |
| State Championship Finalist Alliance |
|---|
| This is what the judges said about the winner of the State Championship Finalist Alliance: |
| The State Championship Finalist Alliance is presented to: |
| Alliance 2: 7113,6424,4855 |