The 2023 Holiday Tournament featured 53 Vex Robotics teams at the Grandville Robotics Competition Center this year in early December. All six Grand Rapids Christian High School Eaglebot teams battled in the tournament. Because of its size, all teams invited to the holiday competition competed in six matches randomly assigned during the morning and early afternoon.
Based on their win-loss record in the morning matches, 32 teams would battle in paired alliances (two teams per alliance) in the afternoon single-elimination tournament. That meant that the top 16 teams were guaranteed a place in the tournament with 16 other teams chosen as alliance partners for the tournament. Unfortunately, with 53 teams at the Holiday Tournament, that means that 21 teams would not compete to become tournament champion.
Four of our six Eaglebot teams made the top 32 teams.
- Team 63600A ‘August’ was a very competitive bot, but their alliance pairings were not as strong as some others and ended with a 2-4 record, ranked 33rd overall.
- Team 63600B ‘TESS’ finished ranked 22nd overall with a strong record of 3-3. The drove very well in the tournament and were able to maximize their strategies in the pairs they were given.
- Team 63600C ‘January’ was ranked 38th with a 2-4 record and had some of the toughest opposing alliance matches. Overall, their shooting catapult score them significant points and they their bot earned them match win points through the autonomous phase of the game, which put them at the top of the list for other teams with a 2-4 record.
- Team 63600D ‘V.E.W.T.S’ also had challenging matches and finished with a 2-4 record ranked 43rd overall. They were able to get their catapult working which opened up new opportunities for them, especially in the Skill Challenges.
- Team 63600E ‘Mercy’ was our highest performing bot in tournament competition matches, with a record of 4-2, which easily could have been 5-1, but lost their last match in a close battle 79-57.
- Team 63600F ‘FredTheFrog’ finished a strong 3-3 but lacked win points during the 15 second autonomous phase, so ended ranked 34th overall.
For the single-elimination tournament, team 63600E choose Team 63600C to pair with as an alliance partner, while team 63600B chose 63600F in their alliance pairing, creating two alliance pairs of Eaglebots! As is typical in such tournament, the lower seeded alliances lost, giving early exits to both our alliance pairs. All four finalist teams earned an invitation to the State Tournament in February for the state of Michigan.
In the Skills competition, our teams were strong. Skills involves two parts: driving and programmed autonomous. Each run lasts for one minute for driving and one minute pure programed. The goal is to score as high as possible in each part for a combined score. Each team can do three drive and three autonomous runs in between the time they are competing on the field in competition matches.
- 63600C earned the highest score with as season high among all Eaglebot teams at 139, Driver: 69 | Prog: 70, finishing in the top 50% of all teams, with the 49th highest score in the state of Michigan this season
- 63600D earned a season team high of 118, Driver: 80 | Prog: 38, finishing in the top 50% of all teams
- 63600B earned a season team high of 48, Driver 38: | Prog: 10
- 63600E earned a season team high of 36, Driver 31 | Prog: 5
- 63600F had some several complications and were unable to earn higher than previous tries, but did get a total of 16 for driver portion.
Vex Awards at this tournament are rare because of the size of the competition field of 53 teams. However, Team 63600C ‘January’ earned the Build Award for their outstanding robot construction, their team interview and dynamics, and sturdiness on the field of play. Our Eaglebot teams competed well and the coaching staff is excited to see their improvement. Our next tournament will come in early January.