TA News

On Saturday, nineteen TA roboteurs took their six machines to the NH/VT Robotics State Championship at Manchester Community College in Manchester, NH. Thirty-two other robots from 12 other VT & NH schools had met the qualification criteria and were there competing. In addition to state-championship trophies, there were six invitations to the World championship in the offing.   

All morning and until 3PM, the robots were pitted in randomly selected 2V2 pairs to compete in a total of 78 two-minute bouts. During those hours, the leader boards kept shifting, and for a goodly portion of them, our own middle school team 4886A (Meredith Sloop, Peter Horan, Ira Corbett, Ruby Cushman, and Bodhi Knowlton-Young) held the top spot – with the rest of TA teams gathered close under them.  But at the end of these 78 qualification matches, it was our other middle school team 4886P (Bennett Mellen, Connor Sansom, and Seeley Queenville) who, as 3rd seed, held top TA honors.  

After the qualification matches, the top seeds choose partners for the elimination series. Our 6th-seeded 4886S (Connor Kutter-Walker and Duncan MacPhee) were selected by the 2nd-seed from Belmont, NH. Our two middle-school teams chose each other making for a cute lineup. 4886X (Jason Hill and Brycen Crossett) chose a partner from Coe Brown Academy in Northwood, NH, while 4886Y (Rowan Moody-A’ness, Tristan Woodward, Aiden Ouellette, and Lucca Huling) chose a partner from the Spark Academy in Manchester.  Finally our 4886W (Kai Slayton, Jesse Martin, Tanner Hardy, and Calvin Hughes) was chosen by a team from Pinkerton Academy in Derry, NH.  

The round-of-16 saw both the 4886W and 4886X alliances eliminated; all others prevailed. The middle school teams, 4886A and 4886P, ended their day in the quarterfinals, losing to an alliance from Randolph, VT. That left only 4886S and 4886Y in the running.  Both their alliances made it thought the semifinals and thus met, brother against brother, in the final.  

The final of a tournament is best of three, and the first match went to the 4886S pair decisively. Now in a do or die, 4886Y fought back and took the second match by one point. In the third and decisive match, the two teams tied – forcing a fourth match. Finally in the fourth, 4886S and their partner from Belmont prevailed – by a scant two points. Obviously, those two alliances were very evenly matched. 

By winning the tournament, 4886S earned one of those 6 world-championship berths. They also received the day’s highest honor, the coveted Excellence Award – which double qualified them for Worlds. When a team double qualifies, the selection criteria shifts over to the robot skills competition – and who was sitting in the top eligible spot? It was our own 4886Y. So despite losing the final, 4886Y earned their ticket to Worlds through the skills competition.

Meanwhile our team 4886P earned the middle-school Excellence Award – and their own ticket to Worlds.  So in the end, TA claimed three of NH & VT’s six spots at the World Championship.  At the beginning of May, they will be heading to Dallas, TX to compete against students from all over the world.