Team Rovers Compete in VexIQ World Championships
After winning the New Zealand VexIQ Championships Team Rovers (48495A) qualified to participate in the World Championships in Dallas, Texas in early May. The team consisted of two Year 9 students, Leo Brebner and Josiah Lo. It was an amazing experience, and the boys did incredibly well. They should both be commended for how they represented both themselves and New Zealand at the competition. Finals day in particular was impressive with their calm yet determined focus. Each match required them to meet new teammates and create a winning strategy for their alliance to maintain their average and qualify for the finals.
The World Teamwork Competition ran over 2 days and involves 800 teams, from 45 countries. These teams were split into ten Divisions, with 80 teams in each. Each team is randomly drawn ten alliance partners who they each play a match with, sharing that team score. Teams are trying to maximise their score in each match to get the highest average they can across their ten matches. The top twenty teams out of 80 qualify for divisional finals. Rovers finished in 6th, meaning they would be paired with the 5th ranked team. Rovers and their alliance team ‘Tempest’ played the 3rd to last match in the division finals and set a score to beat of 266 out of a possible 315. Neither the 3rd and 4th ranked pair, nor the 1st and 2nd ranked pair could beat team Rovers score of 266, meaning Rovers were the Innovate Division Winners. This qualified them for the Grand Final, which they call the DOME.
The DOME is like a replay of the divisional finals, but this time it is the winning team from each division making a ten team Grand Final. The Dome is in a massive indoor arena with a capacity of 10,000 people, simultaneously being broadcast to a live web audience. Rovers and Tempest did amazingly well under all that pressure and finished 7th out of the ten teams.
Thank you to Russell Brebner who coached and accompanied the team and supplied this report and photos. We look forward to seeing what they can achieve in the future.
Below is a YouTube link to the highlights of their Grand Final appearance.
