Lexington, MA, February 20, 2022 - Congratulations to the Vinci Robotics Academy for the successful hosting of the VEX IQ Tournament on February 19, 2022, at Harrington Elementary School in Lexington, MA. Thanks to the teams' participation and all volunteers' support to make the event run smoothly and joyfully.
A total of 13 teams participated in the tournament. They are from Hopkinton Middle School, QUASHNET School, North Shore Christian School, and Vinci Robotics Academy. There are six middle school teams and seven elementary school teams. Four awards are handed out to winners: Teamwork Champions, Robot Skills Champion, Excellence Award, and the Design Award.
All teams started entering the venue from 9 AM to check-in. All teams also must finish the robot inspection before they can compete.
At 10:10 AM, after all teams finished their robot inspection, the operation manager of Vinci Robotics Academy, Chenyu Lin, welcomed all teams and audiences in the opening ceremony and talked about important game rules in the driver's meeting.
At 10:30 AM, the head referee, John Fitzgerald, has officially announced the first teamwork matches started. During the teamwork matches, two teams need to collaborate to get the highest scores together. Teams need to arrange their route and time efficiently and effectively to get more points during the match.
There were 84 teamwork matches in total, each team played 8 matches with a random alliance. Teamwork matches went from 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM. Teams were ranked by their average scores from all 8 matches they played and the top 12 teams were able to get into the final round of the tournament. Teams were trying their best to get more points, and when they got used to the matches, they were doing better and better. The totally match scores were getting higher and higher.
Meanwhile, teams can also try skills challenges in another field. Teams just needed to get their most points within 1 minute by themselves. Every team had three driving attempts and three programming attempts. The highest combined scores team is the skills champion.
More than operating the robot during matches, teams also need to show their passions and knowledge on their teamwork and explain how they built their robot. There were three judges (Jomo, Lavish, & Ethan) who reviewed the team's engineering notebook and interviewed teams to determine the Excellence Award and Design Award.
At 1:45 PM, after teams finished all their teamwork matches, the tournament had its most exciting moment, the finals! 12 teams paired into 6 groups to run one final match group by group. The highest score of the group got would be the tournament teamwork champions.
Eventually, team 6900B from Vinci Robotics Academy and team 1715B from Hopkinton Middle School got 97 points and won the final round. Congratulations to them.
At the Award Ceremony, the Excellence Award also went to team 1715B and the Design Award went to 1715S also from Hopkinton Middle School.
Also, congratulations to the Vinci Robots Academy team 6900B, which stood out from all teams in Skills Challenges to get 93 points in total to become the Skills Champion of the tournament.
The tournament ended with so much happiness and joy. Each match was an immersive experience for students. They learned so much and they constantly outdo themselves and improve their robots, programs, and skills to get better and better.
Although this tournament was the first time that Vinci Robotics Academy hosted the VEX IQ tournament, the event was organized nicely and smoothly. Thanks for all volunteers' support and devote time and effort to make it happen successfully.
Here is a message from a volunteer, Edison, "On February 19, as a volunteer scorer for the VEX IQ competition, organized by the Vinch Robotics Academy Institute. During the competition, I saw children of different ages and races. They are all happy and well prepared, hoping to win a good place and bring honor to their team. This kind of competition tests a person's operational ability and trains a person's psychological quality. Thank you very much for this volunteer activity, which made me feel the charm of the VEX IQ contest. Next time, I also want to stand on the battlefield and fight side by side with my robot."
To learn more about the Vinci Robotics Academy, please check here https://www.vincirobotics.org/about-us,
To learn more about the Summer Campus offered by Vinci Robotics Academy, check out our summer camp programs: https://www.vincirobotics.org/summercamp.
