Last month, we went to the PAS-VEX Signature Event. This is the first Signature Event I have been to. Tournament Champions and the Excellence Award winner will qualify for VEX Worlds.
Competition Introduction
This year, there are 72 teams from around the world that participated in this event, including the best teams from Taiwan, Vietnam, China, and other countries.
This event lasts 3 days in total. The first day was relatively low-pressure since there were only practice matches, which is why we chose to do the team interview and most skills matches on the first day. The second day is crucial as 6 qualification matches are played, almost confirming the qualification rankings. Finally, on the third day, 2 extra qualification matches are played, elimination alliances are selected, and the elimination rounds to determine the tournament champions are played.
Pre-competition Preparations
Before the competition, we did a lot of preparation. For 2 weeks, we basically practiced every day to tune our robot and practice driver and autonomous skills. Our robotics lab also hosted a small scrimmage with 11 teams. That was where most of our tournament strategies were developed.
Other than the match preparations, we also prepared decorations and gifts(stickers and cookies). We also familiarized ourselves with the team interview, as it is an important part of the competition.
Day 1
Finally, it was competition time. On the first day, we quickly did autonomous skills: we ran the stable route, and it worked, giving us 74 points. After that, we moved on to driver skills, running it three times. Although a few mistakes were made and we couldn't control the upper center goal, we still ended up with 83 points. This was below our expectations, but still good enough to secure us the 3rd place in skills.
Another important part of day 1 was the team interview. The interviewers were pretty nice, and we introduced basically every aspect of our team, including team organization, the notebook, robot details, programming ideas, and our strategies.
Finally, the 2 practice matches. We won both of them, including a match against a really great team, 50922T.
After the day, we were still busy testing the autonomous skills for day 2 and scouting our teammates and opponents. I slept at 12am, which was very late because we had to wake up at 6am the next morning.
Day 2
For our first qualification, we almost got the AWP but failed to load on the left side, though we still won. In the second match, we successfully ran the Solo-AWP strategy, getting the AWP, but ended up losing the match because one of our intake disconnected, completely preventing us from scoring.
On our third qualification match, our teammate 86254B was really good, and with them, we got an AWP and the win. The fourth match was quite unfortunate as both of our autonomous vehicles were unsuccessful and ended up losing auto. Luckily, we still won the match.
The fifth match was great because we got the Solo-AWP and ended up winning the match. For the sixth qualification match, we unfortunately failed to load on the right side during auto, so we didn't get an AWP, but won the match.
At the end of the day, we were ranked 6th on the qualification ranking, not low but not the highest. So we might be unable to choose our desired teams. At night, we looked at different possibilities and came up with a list of teams to possibly cooperate with.
Day 3
The seventh match was really important. We were against 78181A, one of the best teams. We ended up successfully running the Solo-AWP strategy and getting an AWP, though 78181A did so as well and even outscored us, losing us auto. Luckily, our teammate and I both did well and won the match. This match boosted us to the second ranking.
The last qualification match was very unfortunate since a block from the other side of the field flew here and disrupted our auto, cost us an AWP, though we still won the match. Ending qualifications with us in 2nd place.
Then comes the alliance selection part. Had the 1st place team, 50922T, chosen 66994T, our alliance with 66994T would be broken. Luckily, they didn't do that at the end, and we were able to fight the eliminations with 66994T.
Our strategy worked quite well, as we won the round of 16, quarterfinal, and semifinal matches with pretty big score differences.
Final 1, both of our autonomous ran well, and we won the auto bonus. Our teammate 66994T really dominated the right side long goal and the center goals. We faced some difficulties but ended up winning the left side long goal as well, taking the first final match with a 47-point difference.
Final 2 was a lot trickier. We lost the auto because the autonomous changed the strategy, and our auto didn't work well. The driver period was also really close, but 66994T secured 2 control zones, and we slightly won the left side in the last second. Winning by a narrow margin of 27 points.
Before the eliminations, judges came to us and asked for a second team interview, but we had to play the eliminations, so we didn't have time. After the finals, our second interview was cancelled, and we didn't end up with any judged awards, probably because we already won the tournament. It was really sad since we had spent countless hours writing the engineering notebook, but at least we qualified for VEX Worlds.
Conclusions
After the competition, we made a recap video with the best parts of each match. Feel free to check it out.
Huge thanks to all 3 of my teammates, our alliance partner 66994T, every team we have cooperated with, and every team participating in the event. Also, thanks to the PAS volunteers who made this event possible. Thanks to our coach and our sister teams, who taught us a lot throughout the season. Last but not least, parents who supported their kid to play VEX.
Through the 3 days of intense competition, we have gained a lot more than the award alone. We faced challenges, like the motor disconnection on day 2, or the auto malfunction in the final 2. They really tested our ability to stay calm under pressure. Luckily, we were able to end up winning the tournament.
We still have the Taiwan Open Competition before VEX Worlds, so we still need to keep improving. But I'm extremely happy and grateful for the tournament win.
