Olympia School District high school teams dominated the inaugural FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Olympia League Event on Saturday, November 23, at Jefferson Middle School. Seventeen teams from Thurston, Mason and Gray’s Harbor Counties competed in the first of three League Events, which combined will determine these 17 teams’ seeding at the Southern Washington Inter-League Championships on January 11, 2014 at Jefferson Middle School.
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.
Oly Cow (team #6424) from Olympia High School ended up undefeated and topped the rankings in a promising start to their attempt to retrace their path last year to the State Championships. The Capital Gear Grinders from Capital High School (#5061) and DERPA from Olympia High School (#7113) came in second and third respectively, separated only by a few tie-breaker points. Avanti High School also made a strong showing, with BGIP (#4448) placing 4th and MIP (#7111) finishing in 7th place. A veteran team from Elma High School, Elma Robotics (#6091), placed 5th and rookie teams from North Thurston High School (#7705), Shelton’s Oakland Bay Junior High School (#7299) and Pope John Paul II High School (#8030) rounded out the top half of the field.
Rookie and veteran teams alike all learned a great deal at this first competition and now have two weeks to refine their robots before the second League Event on Saturday, December 7th at the Olympia High School Commons (rear parking lot). Admission is free, and the public is welcome to come and cheer on your favorite team in “Robotics as a Sport”. Matches will run 1:00 to 5:00 on Saturday afternoon.
The final standings from the first event and school affiliations are presented below:
South Sound League Competition
Division: Olympia League Competition Ranking List
| Rank | Team | Team Name | QP | RP | Highest | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6424 | Oly Cow | 12 | 200 | 128 | 6 |
| 2 | 5061 | Capital Gear Grinders | 9 | 106 | 85 | 6 |
| 3 | 7113 | DERPA | 9 | 99 | 128 | 6 |
| 4 | 4448 | BGIP | 8 | 148 | 87 | 6 |
| 5 | 6091 | Elma Robotics | 8 | 147 | 80 | 6 |
| 6 | 7705 | Radioactive Chinchillas | 8 | 133 | 105 | 6 |
| 7 | 7111 | MIP | 8 | 109 | 95 | 6 |
| 8 | 7299 | T-Wolf | 7 | 154 | 86 | 6 |
| 9 | 8030 | Steel Wings | 6 | 98 | 85 | 6 |
| 10 | 7829 | Mighty Soph’s | 6 | 98 | 63 | 6 |
| 11 | 7742 | Jaktd Jadda | 6 | 95 | 93 | 6 |
| 12 | 7973 | One and Oly | 6 | 83 | 122 | 6 |
| 13 | 6421 | ACRONYM | 4 | 93 | 64 | 6 |
| 14 | 4131 | Mighty Men of Machines | 3 | 59 | 87 | 6 |
| 15 | 3838 | Thor | 2 | 82 | 64 | 6 |
| 16 | 7112 | Broken Motors | 0 | 83 | 26 | 6 |
| 17 | 6415 | BazingaBots | 0 | 66 | 50 | 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.
South Sound League Competition
Division: Olympia League Competition Team List
| Number | Name | School | City | State | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3838 | Thor | Yelm High School | |||
| 4131 | Mighty Men of Machines | Yelm High School | |||
| 4448 | BGIP | Avanti High School | |||
| 5061 | Capital Gear Grinders | Capital High Schools | |||
| 6091 | Elma Robotics | Elma High SChool | |||
| 6415 | BazingaBots | Aberdeen High School | |||
| 6421 | ACRONYM | Tumwater Robotics Club | |||
| 6424 | Oly Cow | Olympia High School | |||
| 7111 | MIP | Avanti High School | |||
| 7112 | Broken Motors | Capital High School | |||
| 7113 | DERPA | Olympia High School | |||
| 7299 | T-Wolf | Oakland Bay Junior High School | |||
| 7705 | Radioactive Chinchillas | North Thurston High School | |||
| 7742 | Jaktd Jadda | North Thurston High School | |||
| 7829 | Mighty Soph’s | Yelm High School | |||
| 7973 | One and Oly | Olympia High School | |||
| 8030 | Steel Wings | Pope John Paul II High School |