The NOVA VRC Tournament registration is up. Event is on December 3rd at Osbourn Park High School, Manassas VA.
http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/nova-vrc-tournament.html
All information about this tournament will be posted on this forum.
If you wish to be a volunteer for this event, please go the to below mysignup
Attention all registered VA/MD/DC or further out VRC teams,
The NOVA VRC tournament is open for registration is open and we are waiting for teams to register.
http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/nova-vrc-tournament.html
Where:
Osbourn Park High School
8909 Euclid Ave
Manassas VA 20111
When:
December 3rd
Doors open at 7 am
Event ends at 5 pm
Full schedule to follow soon
Cost:
$50 a team to register
14 Awards:
2 Tournament Champions (2 World Spot)
2 Tournament Finalist
Excellence Award (1 World Spot)
Programming Skills Champion
Robot Skills Champion
Design Award (if enough teams, 1 World Spot)
Community Award
Create Award
Energy Award
Amaze Award
Innovate Award
Sportsmanship Award
This year the competition will be run as 2 divisions. This will ensure teams get the proper number of matches; we will be splitting the teams into 2 divisions. This split into divisions will be done straight up the list.
Example, 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 3C.
Division 1: 1A, 1C, 2B, 3B
Division 2: 1B, 2A, 3A, 3C
This ensures that all teams are evenly distributed between the two divisions. The top 4 teams will make alliances in each division; this will make sure a total of 16 teams participate in the finals. The winners of the divisions will then go head to head, for Tournament Champion, and Finalist. All other awards will not be based on divisions. This includes driver & programming skills.
Volunteers
If you would like to volunteer for the event, please use the link below, and fill an empty spot.
[http://www1.mysignup.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?datafile=novavex2011
I look forward to seeing everyone at the tournament.
Thank you,
James Gillespie](http://www1.mysignup.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?datafile=novavex2011)
We are doing a toy drive again this year. Last year I asked last minute for all teams to bring toys, and it was a major success. So I am hoping we can make many children happy this Christmas Season again. All the toys benefit children in the Prince William County Area. Please bring toys to be donated in their original packaging.
Thank you so much, I know we can make this a very merry Christmas for many children.
Thank you,
James Gillespie
Here is the schedule for Saturday
NOVA VEX Tournament
Schedule
7:00 – Doors Open
8:30 – Final Team Check in
8:30 – Drivers Meeting
8:45 – Match Schedule Distributed
9:00 – Opening Ceremony
9:15 - Qualification Matches Begin
12:15 - Lunch Break
1:00 - Qualification Matches Resume
2:30 - Alliance Selection
3:00 - Elimination Matches Begin
4:30 - Award Ceremony
5:00 - Clean up begins
Skills Field
9:15 am – 2:30 pm
Inspection
7:00 am – 9:00 am
Concessions
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Only thing that might change is the Concessions might be open longer then listed
Currently we are up to 33 teams. I was hoping by at this point we would be up to 60 teams, making it more then last year. I am continuing to try to get the tournament up to that number.
If we reach 48 teams, I will continue with the original idea of having this be a two division tournament. Splitting the teams down by the original method stated earlier in the forum. This will mean each team will get a lot of matches, and potential of near back to back matches.
If we do not reach 48 teams, we will have this be a normal competition, having only one division, meaning less matches per team, but more time between matches.
No matter how many teams, there will be 8 teams picking partners in single division, or 8 teams in each division picking a partner for eliminations.
Come on guys… just 4 more teams, and we have two divisions! 
(Current count is 44.)
Question: will the standings from this competition be posted on vexscores.com?
(Just curious.)
//Andrew
Andrew, sorry I never replied to your question. But the answer was no.
The tournament went smoothly aside from a hick up in the beginning. I was impressed with all the teams who competed, and with all the volunteers who showed up to help run the event. Special shout out to the mentors who helped set up the network so we could have the rankings display in the pits.
I want to list all the awards that were given at the tournament.
Excellence Award
24A – Super Sonic Sparks
New Windsor, MD
Tournament Champion Captain
3086Z – Cheese
Windsor Mill, MD
Tournament Champion
24A – Super Sonic Sparks
New Windsor, MD
Design Award
2068Z – Metal Jackets
Manassas, VA
Robot Skills Champion
3086Z – Cheese – Score of 32
Windsor Mill, MD
Programming Challenge Champion
2528A - RoboDoves - Score of 7
Baltimore, MD
Tournament Finalist Captain
3086C – Cheese
Windsor Mill, MD
Tournament Finalist
24C – Super Sonic Sparks
New Windsor, MD
Energy award
12T, V, X, Y, Z - Acme Robotics
McLean VA
Create award
2528A – RoboDoves
Baltimore, MD
Community Award
24A, C – Super Sonic Sparks
New Windsor, MD
Amaze Award
3086Z – Cheese
Windsor Mill, MD
Innovative
1575C – Personal Gain
Woodbridge, VA
Sportsmanship
177 - Twisted Bots
Gloucester/Williamsburg VA
Judge Award
4303 A, B, C – Forest Park Robotics
Woodbridge, VA
Judge Award
2190 – RoboDesigners
Daleville, VA
So congratulations to all the teams who came to this event.
Any video up yet?
I have no video of the tournament. One day we will get there.
I know I saw numerous other people taking video so maybe they will post on youtube and post links here
James-
Thank you for putting on a great event. Hopefully next year you will get enough teams to do the two divisions.
Dave Franc
I took a bunch of video of 24C’s matches at the tournament. I’m working on getting all the videos up today. Here is the first one.
~Jordan
I see you finally gave in and changed your intake to side rollers 
Yesterday, at the NOVA Vex Robotics Competition regional tournament, my good STEM Robotics friends honored me with a Volunteer-of-the-Year award. :eek:
I’ll try to continue to prove worthy of having such good friends and colleagues. Thanks so much! to everyone involved.
Blake
Yes, we did. 
I tried very hard not to, but we were eventually fed up with the top-roller, and decided we had to try the side-roller intake… . They proved to be so much better, we’ve stuck with those (for now).
By the way, here’s some more video from the tournament:
24A Robot Skills 1 (16 Points)
24A Programming Skills 1 (4 Points)
24C Programming Skills 2 (7 Points)
~Jordan
Thank you to the event coordinators for running this tournament; it was a lot of fun.
Where is the 7th point? Did the first ball roll into the corner?
It was a pleasure meeting you at the tournament!
//Andrew
Yes, it actually did! I was counting up the score, and saw 6. Then, our coach pointed to the ball in the corner. XD Lucky roll, haha.
It was a pleasure meeting you, as well! Always great to put faces to and really meet the wonderful posters on this forum.
~Jordan
Yeah. We’ve been using a side intake since the beginning of the season and have found it to perform much better than a top-roller intake.
Andrew,
I saw your question post on the forums about the Gatebot. Good question by the way, we were concerned about this idea ourselves when designing it.
https://vexforum.com/t/answered-questions-about-gatebots/20266/1
Karthik had posted an answer to a similar question just a few days earlier. Though I think it was completely unintentional that it answered the idea of the gatebot, without the gatebot being asked.
[https://vexforum.com/t/answered-pinning-question-again/20191/1
Here is my own thought, not that it maters as I am not a member of the GDC. Personally I see pinning as preventing someone from playing the game. If the opponent has game objects to score in the isolation zone, then you aren’t preventing them from playing the game. But if they have no game objects you are preventing them. Now if its the last 30 seconds, then you have the negation barrel, which again, no longer preventing them from playing the game. If I remember correctly, the ref called them as pinning as per the idea I stated above, but in reality according to Karthik it isn’t.
Thought I would mention it here, and any discussion we have about it can be here.
Also thanks for coming to the competition, congrats for the judges award, and I look forward to seeing you and your team again.
Also, totally off topic, but I was looking at your teams website, noticed yall do Ion Mini Urban Challenge. Are yall doing it again this year, in case you weren’t aware, we host the local regional one at Osbourn Park High School as well as the NOVA tournament.
Thanks,
James Gillespie](https://vexforum.com/t/answered-pinning-question-again/20191/1)
I had to ask… :rolleyes: I thought that the Gatebot you guys had was certainly legal, but it got me thinking about other designs/sizes of Gatebots (i.e. taller or wider ones) that could be a bit more troublesome. In any case, I wanted a concrete ruling about it…
Thanks! We look forward to competing with you guys, too!
Thank you for looking at our website! Unfortunately, as we are a homeschool team, we are unable to compete in the Mini Urban Challenge. However, we decided to publicize it on our website so others can know about it.
//Andrew
Your homeschooled? So is the Cornerstone Robotics club.
How cool! Another team that is homeschooled 
Just saw that!