Robotics teams compete in first tournament of the season in Vale

Not every sport is a test of athleticism. Some are tests of brain power, and one such sport is robotics. Recently, the Weiser High School robotics teams had their first tournament of the season.

 When considering sports, robotics is not traditionally popping up in people’s minds. However, the sport still deserves support and attention due to how excellent the WHS teams are.

Last year a few of the robotics teams made it all the way to the world championships so this year the teams have a lot to live up to so they can hopefully match the grand success of last year.

The WHS teams recently attended a VEX Robotics tournament at Vale High School on Jan. 17. Six out of the seven teams attended the event. Sadly one of the teams could not appear at the event.

The teams that did compete were, H.I.V.E. whose members are Soren Alder, Max Burkhart, and Shane Bush, team X4 FORCE whose members are Chris Cruz, Elizabeth Pallares, and Jorge Martinez, team J-5 ALIVE whose members are Justin Ragan, Dustin Clark, and Dolores Olivos, team Moxxi whose members are Adrian Dodson, Alek Dunbar, and Keegan Willet, team Circuit Breakers whose members are Cameron Gourley, Elijah Hale,  and Jase Halvorson, and finally, there was team W.E.A.B. whose members are Anthony Conner, Bradley Ellingson, and Elizabeth Fitch.

These six teams had a lot of competition to face since there were 46 total teams at the meet.  WHS really needed to bring their A-game for this meet!

 In robotics, the teams participate in a new game every year in which they must use their robots to compete. This year the game was High Stakes.

The game involves 48 rings all placed across the playing field. The goal is to stack the rings on stakes with the higher stakes being worth more points due to the challenge involved with having the little robots climb the towers.

The game is split into two rounds. The first is the autonomous round in which the players use predetermined code to make the robots due the task at hand. The next is the human-controlled round where the players must use a controller to control the functions of their robot and guide them directly to victory.

The WHS teams had been practicing this game a lot and though they may not have won overall, the teams still gave an admirable performance.

Two rookie teams, meaning teams of kids new to robotics, made it to the bracket which is something that not every team can achieve.

Those teams were Circuit Breakers and W.E.A.B. The fact that these new teams could pull off that feat is incredibly impressive and shows that they have a bright future in this thrilling sport.

One team however did better than the rest making it all the way to the quarterfinals of the tournament. That team was X4-FORCE. A truly impressive accomplishment and something that they should be very proud to have achieved.

Halvorson, member of team Circuit Breakers, had tons of fun at the competition and was grateful to have help from other teams.

“Some of the teams gave us advice to improve our robot, which was very helpful since we are a freshman team and don’t know exactly what we’re doing yet. There was time between matches to work on our robot, but not so much time that we were bored. Overall, I had a great time, and I can’t wait for the next competition,” Halvorson said.

Willet, member of team Moxxi, also had fun at the tournament and was glad that he was able to go to this one since last year he was so busy. 

“This was my second ever robotics tournament since I did a winter sport last year, so I couldn’t make it to tournaments much. The tournament was packed full of a lot of fun, and a good amount of stress, but not enough to ruin it. My team’s robot wasn’t the best and our robot was still in development, but playing and constantly building in our off time did allow us to go from not scoring to being able to score during the tournament.” Willet said.

The next tournament was at East Valley Middle School in Nampa on Jan. 31. Let’s hope the robotics team brought home even more victories!