歪歪漫画

BEMIDJI 鈥� The gears have been turning inside the heads of four Bemidji Middle 歪歪漫画 robotics teams since the beginning of the school year, and for two of these teams, these gears are sending them to Texas.

Set to compete at the in Dallas, Texas, on May 3-5, teams 1532A and 1532D are ecstatic to compete at a world tournament for the first time since 2018.

Starting their season later than normal in October, the teams had some brainstorming time after the 2021-2022 robotics course was announced during the summer.

Titled 鈥淭ipping Point,鈥� the game is played on a 12-foot-by-12-foot field with two-team alliances playing against each other.

Alliances score points by placing rings on color-coded posts, moving mobile goalposts to their 鈥渁lliance zones鈥� and elevating their robot on a platform at the end of the match.

Each match starts with a 15-second autonomous period, or program-controlled period, followed by a one-minute 45-second driver-controlled period.

Madelyn Haasken / Bemidji Pioneer

Each tournament starts off with numerous qualification matches, then alliance selection takes place based on rankings at the end of these matches before teams compete in elimination matches.

All BMS teams competed well into the elimination matches at each of their four regular-season events at Fisher, Thief River Falls, East Grand Forks and Win-E-Mac.

They placed second in Fisher, first in East Grand Forks, and even won a Design Award, having been judged on the aesthetic, functionality and design of their robots.

Their rankings qualified them for the VEX State Tournament in St. Cloud, a two-day event in early March where they competed against 60 other middle school teams from across Minnesota.

Teams 1532A and 1532D chose each other for their alliance at the state tournament and tied for third place, earning their spot at the world championship.

Adding to their success, they also tied for third in the state skills competition where a team competes against the clock instead of another team and also won the Amaze Award, a judged award for excellence, cooperation, sportsmanship and design.

There was no shortage of excitement upon learning they鈥檇 be heading to Texas in two month鈥檚 time.

鈥淵ou should鈥檝e seen the parents. They were cheering louder than us,鈥� 1532A team member Brayden Anderson said regarding the moment they qualified for world.

Madelyn Haasken / Bemidji Pioneer

Taking advantage of this extra time, both teams continue to attend their Monday and Wednesday practices where they improve upon their building, coding and driving capabilities.

In anticipation of some of the best teams they鈥檒l be competing with and against, certain priorities include working the kinks out of their autonomous programming, driving and other strategies for scoring points.

鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be tough,鈥� 1532D team member Tanner Johnson said of the competition before Brayden added, 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be really tough.鈥�

More than 20,000 participants from 1,400 teams representing 30 nations will attend the world championship.

Madelyn Haasken / Bemidji Pioneer

Reflecting on the teams鈥� progression throughout his first season as an advisor, BMS industrial technology teacher Bryan Anderson is impressed with the design process each student has followed.

鈥淲ith our first tournament in Fisher mid-November, we had about a month to prep for that,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淪ince then, it鈥檚 been really cool to see the students build what they think is going to work, then go to a tournament, drive it, test it, see what other teams have done, then come back and redesign.鈥�

Steering away from calling it 鈥渢rial-and-error,鈥� Anderson complimented the purposefulness each student has when improving upon their work within their respective role.

鈥淥nce they start working with their teams, they find their spot and comfort zone,鈥� Anderson added. 鈥淲hether they鈥檙e driving, programming or building, they鈥檝e been very purposeful about what parts they鈥檙e adding to the robot and whatnot to address the goal of the course.鈥�

Much like a pre-pandemic season, the teams have had their normal number of in-person tournaments this school year.

During the 2020-2021 season, traditional tournaments were reduced to virtual skills challenges where points were tallied based on submitted videos from each team.

鈥淚t was pretty annoying just because you couldn鈥檛 actually compete with other people,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淵ou basically 'competed' in three matches then went home.鈥�

Madelyn Haasken / Bemidji Pioneer

With the state tournament being the only in-person opportunity last school year, a return to normal couldn鈥檛 come quickly enough for the VEX Robotics students this year.

鈥淲e were pretty excited about it,鈥� Brayden said. 鈥淲e definitely prefer a normal season.鈥�

And with a world championship to look forward to, it鈥檚 a return to normal and then some.