May 1, 2019

Westview Robotics Makes Some Noise at World Championships

  Westview Robotics sent tow teams to the VEX World Championships. They made their presence known among the best in the WORLD!  SemicolonSemicolon came in as the #14 team in Robot Skills rankings for Middle School teams.  They were able to drive their highest score of the season at 27 points but their 17 point program just wouldn’t cooperate as was the case with many teams and they were only able to secure 7 points.  They end the season with a combined total of 34 points and 20th in the World for the Middle School Division and 75th in the World when you include the High School division.  There have historically been over 10,000 registered teams globally and the average score for this years game was 13 points (according to VexDB Stats). In Tournament Match play each team had 11 matches spread out over 3 days.  The coaches goal was to win at least half of the matches and come out 6-5.  Semicolon had other plans going 10-1 and were the #3 team in the Opportunity Division of 94 teams.  They chose a solid partner for the Alliance Selection going into Elimination matches and lost a close match in the Semifinals of their division to the #4 seed.  An incredible run that left them 1 match away from being in the overall finals for the World Championship.  This team of 8th graders has worked tirelessly around the clock averaging over 6 hours a week the entire season since school started in August.  In 6th grade they won their first Excellence Award, in 7th grade they won multiple Excellence, Design, Robot Skills, and were the State runner up.  In 8th grade they dominated the field including the High School teams for a total of 20 awards in their 3 year span.   Semicolon may be finished with Westview Middle School robotics, but they have definitely left an impression on our program, the district, the state, and now the World.  It has been a pleasure being a part of their lives, and I look forward to the 3 of them coming back one day to share their story with students that are just being born. Martians  Martians came in the #39 team in Robot Skills with 32pts but after a very late addition to their robot and 5 hours of programming last Saturday (4 days before tournament) they pulled off what we never expected.  An 18 point program that only 3 other teams were able to replicate.  With their drive of 25pts they secured a spot in the top 3 and a chance at the overall title in the Robot Skills finals.  During finals the standings did not change as each of the top 3 had one more drive opportunity and the Martians combined score of 43 points ended up 3rd in the World for Robot Skills in Middle School and 20th in the world when you include High Schools. With 2 members from the Central Elementary Flying Hamburgers team that made 3 trips to Worlds the Martians have competed under this pressure of being on the World stage.  With a 9-2 record they finished 6th in the Spirit Division of 94 teams.  In Alliance Selection they were respectfully denied by their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd pick.  Their 4th pick said yes to being their partner and together they beat the 1st team that denied them in the Round of 16 to advance to the Quarterfinals where they lost to the #4 seed. Martians also earned the Amaze Award that “is presented to a team that has built a competition robot that clearly demonstrates overall quality.  A solid mechanical design along with demonstrated robot programming, robustness, strong performance and consistency are key attributes for this award.”  This team of 7th graders, like Semicolon, averaged over 6 hours a week since December.  Martians still have 1 more year at Westview and are already planning out their designs for next year’s game, Tower Takeover.   Today they are all sleeping in.  Well deserved.  They represented Westview Middle School, St. Vrain Valley Schools, and the State of Colorado at a level that will be hard to replicate, but possible.  Who will be next…