NZ Toss Up Scrimmages

VEX Robotics Competition Discussion VRC > Previous Games
#1

I’ve decided to (finally) start a thread for Toss Up scrimmages in New Zealand, as we have had a few already and I thought some of you will be interested to know what has been happening.

To be absolutely honest with you, I can’t remember the details from the first two scrimmages we have had so far here in Auckland, so I’ll just skip over them and hopefully someone who remembers can help out with that.

So to start off, here is what happened at yesterdays scrimmage…

24th August 2013, at Onehunga High School

Yesterday, 27 teams competed. It was great to see everyone, and some new faces too!

2918A (GCEC, Glenfield College) and 2915B (Lynfield College) won the event, but had some tough challenge in the semifinals when they were against 2921B (Free Range Robotics, Homeschool) and 2915A (Lynfield College). the 2918A and 2915B alliance won the first match, but 2921B and 2915A pushed it to a tiebreaker. 2918A and 2915B moved onto the finals where they faced 2941B (Otumoetai College) and 2941D (Otumoetai College). They won the first match and then 2915B had a little disaster when smoke started to appear from their robot… there was no third match but 2918A and 2915B were announced the champions.

Congratulations to 2918A (GCEC, Glenfield College) and 2915B (Lynfield College)!!!

The highest score of the day in a match was 61.

Thanks to Onehunga High School for hosting the event, and to all the volunteers for running it so smoothly!

~George

#2

Congrats to the winning and finalist teams! Unfortunately I couldn’t be there myself, but I have heard there was some pretty fiery (quite literally :wink: ) competition. The new 2915A and 2915B accidentally had their numbers swapped on the day D: so 2915B was really A and 2915A was really B XD

Its good to see a lot of new people and teams coming through, hopefully we will see the New Zealand competition expand a lot this year! I know Lynfield has a couple of new juniors running 2915B now, and my brother on 2915A so watch out for them in the near future :stuck_out_tongue:

I can’t wait for the next scrimmage to see what people have developed.

As for the previous scrimmages, I believe the first one was won by 2941A (Lucas while he was still competing in HS) and 2918A, where 2915J (when I was still competing in high school under 2915J) and 2915A were in the finals.

As for the second scrimmage, that too has slipped my mind (maybe because there was only a few teams, 12 or so there).

Thanks Charge (for those of you who get the joke…) for making the thread!

#3

vidss! :slight_smile:
.

#4

That is totally going to work murdo.

#5

14th September 2013, at Whangaparoa College

Today we had a scrimmage held at Whangaparoa College, where 21 teams competed. 2918A and 2915A (who competed under 2915B in the last scrimmage) again aligned and won the event, but only just scraped through semifinals against 2921A (again, last time entered as 2921B), who this time aligned with 2900A. In one match they only won by 1 point, and it was very nearly a loss (a second more and it would have been different).

High score of the day in a match was 80.

Thanks to all the volunteers and to Whangaparoa College for hosting the event, and congrats to 2918A and 2915A!! And a big thanks to 2900A for the awesome alliance!

~George

#6

Who were the finalists?

#7

2918A with 2915A and 2915B with 2941D I believe.

~George

#8

28th September 2013, at DigitalNatioNZ Expo

We’ve just got back from competing at the DigitalNatioNZ expo, what a blast! There were a few issues, namely the fact that we were at a large technology expo so there was a considerable amount of wireless interference (basically, in each match you could guarantee a disconnection, in one match my robot disconnected over 10 times). The competition still moved on swiftly though.

The setup was very informal, we only had one field and we were keeping the public engaged. So we would play a bunch of games, then switch into skills, then back into games, and so on. We got loads of interest from spectators and the media, and we hope this helps to boost the VEX programme in New Zealand!

To sum up the rankings, 2918A topped the board once again, but with the situation of the wireless interference who knows how it could have been without that.

The alliances were chosen for us, my team was very lucky to be placed with 2918A and we proceeded through the elimination rounds with ease, and we even won! Free Range Robotics was absolutely over the moon to finally win a Toss Up competition. Thanks Jason (2918A) for the alliance!

As for skills, my team (2921A, Free Range Robotics) ranked first with a score of 54 points, putting us in 20th spot on the World Robot Skills Rankings.

2918A was awarded 2 free tickets to any (well, nearly any) show at Vector Arena within the next 12 months for ranking 1st after qualifications, and 2921A was awarded 2 free tickets for ranking 1st in the skills challenges. Thanks guys for the tickets!!

Next up is a scrimmage at AUT in Auckland City on the 12th of October.

I will be updating this post with more details on the elimination rounds and the rankings after qualifications when I can get them :slight_smile:

~George

#9

Well done and it’s a shame the whole Digital Nationz thing was such a rush and so space constrained. Given it was supposed to be robot wars I’m impressed we ended up having VEX instead!
It certainly did generate some publicity which is great for robotics in NZ

Hopefully 7682 will make it to the next scrimmage!

#10

12th October 2013 at AUT

Another competition already! Just two weeks after the last scrimmage at Digital NatioNZ we had another one today, at AUT (Auckland University of Technology), who are starting up a new team! We also had a guy from Australia fly over with interest to get VEX going over there too, which is fantastic news.

On with the results…

At the end of the Qualification Rounds, Oats D (2941D, Otumoetai College) topped the table followed by GCEC A (2918A, Glenfield College) in second and Wingus and Dingus (7682) in third.

Oats D picked my team (2921A, Free Range Robotics), GCEC A picked Lynfield A (2915A, Lynfield College), and Wingus and Dingus aligned with Oats A (2941A, Otumoetai College).

Wingus and Dingus’s alliance (7682, 2941A) were knocked out in semis to GCEC A’s alliance (2918A, 2915A), who later faced Oats D’s alliance (2941D, 2921A) in the finals. The alliance of Oats and Free Range won both matches with scores of 48-14 and 49-33, and were the tournament champions.

We would like to thank Oats for the great alliance, we really enjoyed working with you plus your assistance with improving our intake system. GCEC and Lynfield - you were a tough alliance and those finals had some pretty intense blocking!

As for skills, 2915A had the highest score of 66.

The highest match score of the day was 87, by the Oats D and Free Range alliance in the semi-finals.

Thanks to AUT and all the volunteers for running the scrimmage, and we look forward to seeing you all again at the next scrimmage! (Big Boys Toys, 9th and 10th November).

EDIT: You can find more details on the scrimmage today on RobotEvents here, or of course through your favourite scouting site.

~George

#11

Well done 2921A & 2941D on your win today!
We especially enjoyed Q40 :smiley:

#12

Thanks :slight_smile:

Haha yeah that match… too close for comfort XD

~George

#13

1st February 2014, at Glenfield College (informal scrimmage)

Yesterday we had our first competition for 2014 in Auckland. Approximately 15 teams competed at this informal, instead of 20-25 you would see at a “normal” scrimmage.

For those wondering what I’m talking about by an “informal scrimmage”, it’s basically where everyone is really relaxed, with no strict schedule and where the fields end up being named the “Much Field” and the “Many Field” (instead of “Field 1” and “Field 2”). Wow.

To be honest, I was finding it a little tricky to follow the rankings as there was only one screen that I saw, and it generally had a match schedule displaying, but I happen to know 2941D (Otumoetai College) ranked first after the qualification rounds (as they were the captains of the first seeded alliance).

Free Range Robotics were picked by 2918D (Glenfield College), thanks for picking us!! And we’re very sorry about our drivetrain overheating.

The finals were a close battle between the first seeded 2941D+2918A (red) alliance and the 2941A+2915A (blue) alliance. The scores were getting close, but in the final match there was a bit of “accidental defensive stance” play by the red alliance (interesting strategy decision), giving the blue alliance a large opportunity to take the win.

Congrats to 2941A (Otumoetai College) and 2915A (Lynfield College) for winning the competition!

This scrimmage was also an opportunity for skills runs, and I believe that there were scores well into the 80s.

We have competitions every weekend now until the National competition (28 Feb - 2 Mar), I think a location for the next scrimmage is yet to be completely confirmed but will likely be at Massey University. EDIT: Turns out the next scrimmage is at Glenfield College again, or so I have been told.

~George

#14

8th February 2014, at Glenfield Scrimmage (informal)

We had another small informal scrimmage today, 10 teams competed (yes, a VERY small scrimmage). It was great practice for the upcoming National competition, with some very tough games. The robots seemed to be working much nicer today than they were last weekend.

A few details…

-After Qualifications, 2915A (Lynfield College) ranked 1st, 2919W (Kristin School) ranked 2nd, and 2921A (Free Range Robotics) ranked 3rd.

-During the competition, 2 teams chose not to continue (2918A during lunch break, and 2919W just before Alliance Selection), taking us down to 8 robots, giving us 4 alliances of 2 robots for the Alliance Selection.

-The finals were between 2915A (Lynfield College) with 2921A (Free Range Robotics), and 7757Z (Pasadena Intermediate) with 2911A (Avondale College). 2915A’s alliance won both matches, winning the tournament.

-Highest score of the day to my knowledge was 82 points (in a match).

This scrimmage was also a test for some new technology in New Zealand, some of the university volunteers have worked together to create an app that allows field control from the field (I.E. for a commentator to press a button on their phone to start the game), and for the scorers to enter the scores to their phone/tablet which then sends them directly to the Tournament Manager software. It looks really cool, I hope I haven’t messed up my description of it (as I was only observing and not using the app).

Thanks to Glenfield College for hosting the competition today, and to all the university volunteers! See you all next weekend (15 Feb) at Massey University!

~George

#15

So someone in particular has been bugging me to put an update up on this thread (I forgot, I’m sorry)…

15th February 2014 at Massey University

We had a big scrimmage on Saturday, with 24 teams (iirc) showing up. Time is ticking until the NZ Nationals (11 days as of today), so it was great to see so many teams show up for some great practice!

I am not aware of all the little details (I had planned to get some paper and write down the details on the spot, but that’s another thing I forgot to do), so I’ll edit this post when I have more to share. I do know a few though (I tried to take notes on my phone when I could remember).

A quick summary:

-2941D ranked first after the Qualification Rounds

-2941D aligned with 2918A (after 2915A declined)

-Semifinals 1 were between 2941D (Oats D) + 2918A (GCEC A), and 7682 + 7682E (Wingus and Dingus). 7682’s alliance won one of the games (45-47) but 2941D’s alliance won the other two, progressing them to the finals.

-Semifinals 2 were between 2915A (Lynfield A) + 2941A (Oats A), and 2911A (Avondale A) + 2921A (Free Range A). 2911A’s alliance won the first game but 2915A’s alliance won the following two, progressing them to the finals.

-2915A + 2941A won the first finals game (71-33) as well as the second game, winning the tournament!

Congrats to everyone, hope to see you all this weekend (22 Feb) at Onehunga High School, where I believe we will have a few international teams as well…

~George

#16

A quick correction to my last update, 2918A ranked first and picked 2941D (after 2915A declined), not the other way around.

22nd February 2014 at Onehunga High School

We had a big competition yesterday for New Zealand, with 31 teams competing. Two of these were from Beijing (7871A and 7871B), thanks guys for coming over! It was really cool to see some international teams at one of our scrimmages.

2911A ranked first after the Qualification Rounds, followed by 2915A in second and 2921A in third.

I can’t remember all the alliances unfortunately (8 alliances of 3 teams each is a bit too much for me to remember!!), but I do know that 2911A (Binary Blitz/Avondale College) picked 2915A (Lynfield College) and then 7871A (BJ CP NOFLSch A) (please excuse me if it was 7871B though, the results aren’t showing on RobotEvents), and so 2921A (Free Range Robotics) picked 2941D (Otumoetai College) and then 2921B (Free Range Robotics). 2911A, I’ll forgive you one day for breaking the deal I thought we had :stuck_out_tongue: These two alliances made it to the finals.

2911A’s alliance won both matches, congrats!!

Only 5 days until NZ Nationals, see you all there!

I will definitely either edit this post or reply again a bit later once I have more details about the skills scores, I know there are a lot of teams out there eager to know what’s happening.

~George

#17