For the third consecutive year, Pleasant Grove Robotics has competed at the Vex Robotics World Championships in Dallas, Texas. The robotics program was only founded five years ago, so the ability to compete at such a large degree has been a huge motivation for the younger students learning how to fill the roles of the experienced upperclassmen.
“We didn’t quite make the elimination round at region, and I didn’t think we were going to win anything,” Joe said. “Then we were watching the awards and they called us. We won the innovation award. I did me and Daniel’s standard celebration where I picked him up over my head.”
Out of the four varsity robotics teams, two competed at Worlds.
‘The Hurricanes,’ were all seniors — Andrew Hutcheson, Julia Hackleman, Dylan Yost, and Landon Beck. The other team was known as ‘The Bot Behind the Slaughter,’ and included freshman Daniel Ayers, senior Joe Bailey, sophomore Morgan Yost, and sophomore John Stevens.
“My robotics teammate is a freshman, so this year, I let him take charge by letting him build and code all on his own,” senior Joe Bailey said. “I coded all year except for before Worlds. I had to let him code right before Worlds so that he could learn and do it by himself next year.”
The Hurricanes were close to making it to the elimination rounds, but didn’t have a high enough rank due to a coding issue caught late in the competition.
“There was a firmware update that VEX Robotics did right before Worlds and there was some sort of communication coding issue that we didn’t catch until three matches left,” robotics teacher Colton Mullins said. “We finished with seven wins and three losses, and that’s a winning record against some of the best teams in the world. I was very proud of what they did. Had that not happened, I feel like their rank would have been higher.”
The path to Worlds is challenging, and requires a lot more than winning matches at other tournaments. There are two ways a team can earn a spot at Worlds, but the requirements can only be earned by competing at the regional competition. If a team advances to the semi-final round or earns an award, they can compete at Worlds.
There are 10 different divisions at Worlds, and each division has 80 teams. ‘The Hurricanes’ competed in the arts division, while ‘The Bot Behind the Slaughter’ competed in engineering. Between the 800 teams at Worlds, the teams quite literally come from all parts of the world.
“There were teams from China, Egypt, and just thousands of people everywhere,” Daniel said. “To get that far in the competition, talking to your team is important because everyone needs to work together.”