Norse Robotics team advances to World finals

Members of the Northfield 8th Grade Robotics team are (from left) Madelyn Holley, Collin Biehl, Gavin Lester, Nate Hodson, Preston Moore and Karsen Brown. Not pictured are coach Matt Hodson and assistant coaches Aaron Holley and Sheryl Hodson. Photo provided

Northfield Jr.-Sr. High School will be represented at the World Robotics Tournament later this month in Dallas, Texas.

The school’s 8th grade robotics team earned the bid during the Vex VRC Middle School State Robotics Tournament on March 23 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

In the teamwork competition, the Northfield students – Madelyn Holley, Collin Biehl, Gavin Lester, Nate Hodson, Preston Moore and Karsen Brown – along with their alliance made it to the final championship round, but were defeated in the finals to place second.

In the skills competition, the team tied for third place.

The Northfield team has been together since the third grade when the district started robotics at Metro North. They have attended the World Tournament the past two years – once in the elementary IQ division and once in the middle school VRC division, the same division in which the team will compete this year.

Indiana has five bids to the Worlds at the Middle School VRC level. The two-team alliance that wins the tourney gets the first two bids. The remaining three bids go to the winner of the Build Award, the Excellence Award and the Skills champion.

If a team wins multiple bids, the next team in the skills standings receives the invitation.

“The teams ahead of us in skills had already won bids, so by tying for third place, we were given the next bid,” assistant coach Sheryl Hodson said.

The Worlds competition is similar to the state tourney. The team will compete in two different aspects of the competition.

In the teamwork competition, each team is randomly paired with another team from somewhere in the world. The two teams work together to earn as many points as possible while working against another alliance of two teams. The teams that score the highest after the initial rounds will be selected for the finals tournament.

In the finals, team alliances are chosen and they keep those same alliances the rest of the tournament. The finals tournament is run as a single elimination tournament until the last two alliances are left. The final two alliances battle it out in the best two of three rounds to crown the champions.

During the skills competition, teams exhibit their driving skills on their own. Each team is given three chances at driving and three chances at autonomous programming. The highest driving and autonomous scores are combined and that total is used for the worldwide rankings.

There are 491 teams competing in the Middle School VRC championship in Dallas.

All 50 states are represented. Other nations at the tourney include Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea, China, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Taiwan, Colombia, Singapore, Spain, Morocco, Paraguay, Uganda, Germany, Belgium, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates.

Most of the team will be flying to Dallas; however, coach Matt Hodson will be driving the robot to and from the tourney.

Pizza King in Wabash will be hosting a fundraiser on Thursday, April 18, for the team.

How to watch

Those in Wabash who would like to follow the team may do so at www.vexworlds.tv/#/channels/all