Today is the day many teams would have been arriving at the Kentucky Exposition Center for the 2020 VEX Robotics World Championship. As a sendoff to Kentucky, let’s highlight some of our favorite matches from Louisville.
Post a link to a video of the match you are highlighting and explain why you are highlighting it. This could be for a variety of reasons, including an overall competitive match, unique gameplay moment, a significant match to your team, or anything in between. Feel free to highlight more than one.
While there are too many matches to highlight, I have selected one from each year and ranked them.
5. Starstruck: Round Robin Match #7
Video time code [1:08:14] : https://livestream.com/vrctv1/2017-round-robin-playoffs/videos/154722270
Starstruck was a routine game. That is, until hoard bots like 8000 or 185A were playing. RR#7 was the first match in the round robin where 185A deployed their hoarding mechanism. As 185A was being loaded up, the crowd in Freedom Hall progressively got louder and louder. The crowd then erupted in excitement when 185A raised their stars to the heavens. While the blue alliance did win the match, seeing 185A’s design in action was awesome.
4. Nothing But Net: Round Robin #1
Video: https://youtu.be/-ridtjgfbHs
“The best of the best” were truly on display during the 2016 round robin and this match was a great way to kick things off. Four excellent robots clearing the field and 50-point lifting with 15 seconds left on the clock. I did not watch many matches during NBN, so this was the first match where I saw the field cleared in person.
3. In The Zone: Round Robin #1
Video: https://youtu.be/X4vU3J7Ycxw
Watching the Science division play was hands down the best part of the round robin that year. Who can forget this moment? Ultimately, I wanted to highlight this match as it featured both a lot of defense and scoring. Both alliances were playing their hearts out.
2. Turning Point: Highschool Finals Match #3
Video: https://youtu.be/ENLODLHk0CQ
This was peak Turning Point. Cross fire in autonomous, caps on posts, a rigorous battle for the flags, and a final battle for the center platform. The last 30 seconds of this match was the loudest I have ever heard the crowd in Freedom Hall.
1. Skyrise: VEXU Finals Match 1
Video time code [0:15:00]: https://livestream.com/vrctv1/2015-vrwc-finals-and-closing-ceremony/videos/84381879
I don’t think this will come as a surprise for anyone that saw this match live.
Skyrise was the first VEX Robotics Competition game I played. With a limited budget, we built a simple robot designed to place two skyrise sections in autonomous. That robot won us 3/3 qualifying events and state finalists. It was challenging for our team get such a simple autonomous routine working, so seeing AURA and QCC2 pull off a 7 skyrise + 7 cube autonomous had our jaws on the floor. Judging by the crowd’s reaction, I think everyone was just as amazed.
The action didn’t stop in autonomous. The driver experience of these teams really showed. My favorite driver control moment was AURA trying to block QCC2 from placing 3 cubes and QCC2 muscling through AURA’s defense. This is easily one of the best competitive robotics matches of all time.
Those are some of my favorite matches, what are yours?
