Our team did really well at the last two VEX tournaments that we participated in- Nanakuli and Millilani!
At the Nanakuli tournament, we won 4 out of 6 matches and came in rank 5. We were picked by the 4th seeded alliance- team 3590 Waialua Intermediate, and then picked IPA team 4442X. We won the quarter final match with 71 points to 23, high hanging with a ball! Unfortunately the semi final matches were against Waialua High School 359A and Millilani team 1973C, and we lost.
During the Nanakuli tournament we also had our very first design award interview. We presented our notebook to the judge and talked about our team organization, roles, and how we came up with the design for our robot. The judge was very impressed at our innovative design and engineering notebook, and we brought home the design award at the end of the tournament! Now we qualify for the VEX Hawaii State championships coming up on December 20 at Honolulu Community college. Congratulations, fellow team members Dylan Bell, Jackie Wong, and Masanari Mitsui!
Our VEX team competed again two weeks later at the Millilani Central O'ahu tournament. During the two weeks between the two tournaments we had developed a power takeoff mechanism to assist our high hang, where when engaged, all four motors on our drive train would assist and provide more torque to our arm for hanging. After doing our calculations we discovered that with our power takeoff engaged, our arm would be able to lift up to 48 pounds! But unfortunately, the shafts could not handle so much torque and they bent. During this tournament, our robot could only low hang. However, we still ended up winning 5 out of our 7 matches and ranked 5 once again. During the alliance selections we picked 'Iolani and Moanalua. However, we lost the semi finals to the Campbell Sabertrons and the Tiki Techs from the Big Island.
Another Kalani VEX team also competed along with us at the Millilani tournament- team 3008J. Although they had never competed in a tournament before, their robot still performed well. They advanced to the elimination matches with 1973D (Millilani high school) and Pearl City high school, but lost in the quarter finals to the first seeded alliance in their division 1973B (Millilani) and its alliance. Both teams did very well and were strong competitors. Team 3008T will now be working on major improvements to their robot for the State Championships. Keep you updated!
