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Competition can’t stack up against ABJ robotics

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Students at a local high school were all smiles after all three robotics teams from Archbishop Jordan Catholic High School made it to the finals of a recent tournament.

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The tournament was hosted by the school on Saturday, Nov. 23, with robotics teams from across the province making their way to Sherwood Park to compete.

“It went quite well and I was very pleased. We had three arenas, which was new for us, and we had lots of help from former students and it all went quite well,” explained Scott Crosbie, robotics instructor at ABJ.

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Robotics instructor, Scott Crosbie said the latest robotics tournament at ABJ was a great learning experience for students to see what they need to work on with their bots. Travis Dosser/News Staff
Robotics instructor, Scott Crosbie said the latest robotics tournament at ABJ was a great learning experience for students to see what they need to work on with their bots. Travis Dosser/News Staff

The event had a steady stream of spectators funnel in and out of the stands throughout the day as the teams tested their robot’s skills in a series of tests and games.

“It was great to have that support from parents and staff members who came down to check out what was going on,” he said.

The VEX Robotics Competition this year was called Power Takeover and an ABJ team, with the help of a Fort McMurray team, won the top spot. The event had robots race to stack and stand up cubes or pick up cubes and place them in a raised container.

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“We had one team, 9409Z, who aligned with a team from Fort McMurray and they won the tournament. We had three other teams in it as well and the two others from ABJ teamed up because the matches are cooperative because it is a two versus two situations,” Crosbie said. “Each team played seven matches and they got ranked based on a number of factors. From that, the two ABJ teams that worked together made it into the semi-finals and the other ABJ team, which teamed up with Fort McMurray, made it into the quarter-finals as well.”

Crosbie said it was a great learning experience for the kids to see what they need to work on with their bots.

“Our team did really well and we got to semi-finals, but then lost to the other team that won it all by just one point, but I think we did really good and I was really happy with how our robot performed,” explained Kyle Winland, a Grade 11 robotics student at ABJ. “There is always stuff we can improve on them.”

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Winland said the team started working on improving their robot immediately after the tournament.

“Right now we are trying to make our robot skinnier and smaller in general so we can make it easier to score our cubes and move throughout the arena,” Winland said, adding they named the robot Ritchie.

Students will compete next in a similar event at ABJ again on Jan. 11.

“The whole point is to be better for each tournament because we want to progress toward the Jan. 11 tournament and then the provincial event in Calgary in March, that is what we are working towards,” Crosbie said. “The value of the competition is that it shows your he value and strengths of your design, programming and overall approach to the game and it is a good learning experience.”

Teams from the ABJ Robotics program have qualified for the VEX World Championships for the past three years in a row. That event, which you need to qualify for, sees around 580 teams from 40 countries travel to compete, which is about three per cent of the 16,000 VEX teams around the world.

tdosser@postmedia.com

twitter.com/travisdosser

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