Every year, more than 14,000 VEX Robotics teams from over 50 countries compete to qualify for the prestigious VEX Robotics World Championship, held this year in Dallas from May 6-8. This year, one of the school’s VEX teams, 95071X, known as Saratoga High Extremity, advanced to the World Semifinals, placing them among the top eight teams in the world.
Team 95071X consists of freshman Daniel Yeh; sophomore Krishna Muddu; juniors Alec Guan, Richard Lee, Adit Sharma and Bryan Zhao and seniors Alex Yaung and Luke Zhang. The team qualified for the World Championship twice this season — once through the Skills Challenge at the NorCal Signature Event and again at the State Championship, where they won the Amaze Award for developing a high-scoring and performing robot.
Placed in the Engineering Division alongside 80 other teams, 95071X ranked first following the qualification matches, with a 9-1 record. The team was given the first choice to pick an alliance partner and chose Team 11101B Barcbots Getting There, a private garage team based in Cupertino. After winning two intense divisional finals matches, the team made it into the Grand Finals Bracket, with the division seeding of eighth out of the ten divisions.
The team selected Team 11101B to alliance with them after practicing together extensively before the competition. During the weeks leading up to the World Championship, Team 95071X hosted several scrimmages for the other world-qualifying teams in the region, where they had many opportunities to practice with 11101B as partners.
“We knew that we and Barcbots [Team 11101B] were going to be in the same division and that we were probably going to go with each other during eliminations, so we made sure to partner with them at every scrim for practice,” team driver Lee said.
During the first day of Worlds, the team participated in the Skills Challenge, where robots work alone to complete certain tasks to earn points. With a score of 109, 95071X ranked 20th in the world. The team also played two qualification matches, which they won with comfortable margins.
To determine rankings, teams that complete a certain set of tasks during the autonomous period receive an “autonomous win point,” and if they win the match, they receive two additional ranking points. Going into the second day, Muddu said, the team focused on winning all six qualification matches and securing autonomous win points.
Typically, teams coordinate their autonomous programs to get the win point. However, to consistently complete the task, the team created code that could complete the task on its own.
The World Championship also offers a wide variety of experiences in addition to matchplay, including meeting other teams from around the world. With over 800 teams from over 40 countries, the team spent a sizable amount of time finding collectibles — such as stickers and plushies — to take home. Muddu mentioned that some of his favorites were dolphin plushies from Team 9123C Shanghai Ruiguan and shiny card-themed stickers he received from Team 229V Ace Robotics.
“Getting the opportunity to get to meet our friends at Worlds and getting to talk to other teams from different place was a really great and unique experience,” Muddu said.
The team maintained its position as the first seed until the third day of qualification matches. Due to a faulty battery cell, Team 95071X’s robot died on the field, resulting in a loss and a drop in ranking.
“When we dropped, I was freaking out because I knew that if we stayed low, then we wouldn’t be able to select our ideal alliance,” Muddu said. “Our chances of winning our division dropped significantly.”
However, the teams that were ranked above 95071X all lost their subsequent matches, allowing 95071X to reclaim their spot as first seed going into alliance selection.
During eliminations, teams selected alliance partners to pair with based on seeding.
“I think we got super lucky that the other high-ranking teams also lost. We knew that we were going to pick Barcbots from the start, so that’s the choice we made,” Muddu said.
Throughout division elimination matches, 95071X and 11101B maintained a winning position in all matches throughout their bracket, and ultimately competed against 2011K and 7009X from Ohio and Georgia, respectively, in division finals.
“We were really scared of 9123C Shanghai Ruiguan, who was ranked second seed. However, they were upset in the quarterfinals round, so going into finals, we felt pretty confident that we would win,” Lee said.
In the team’s first match in the 10,000-seat championship arena dubbed the “Dome,” the team faced the Science Division Champions, 229V Ace Robotics — a former division champion from Tavares, Florida — and 54666A AK Robotics from Xi’an, China. With a strong start from holding more mobile goals and attaining the autonomous bonus, the team secured the win due to Ace Robotics’ hang falling off the high ladder.
During the second round, the team faced the Arts Division Champions, Teams 10W Exothermic Willy Wonkers and 9123W Shanghai Ruiguan. In the match, the team continued to play the match off an autonomous lead, relying on consistent programming to attain the autonomous bonus — a six point bonus for the alliance that scores higher during the autonomous period. In the end, as 9123W executed a third-tier hang, 95071X secured a first-tier hang. Due to the autonomous bonus, the team won by two points, pushing the team into semifinals.
Their semifinals match started with an autonomous tie, resulting in no bonus to rely upon. Through a rare double disqualification due to entanglement penalties and the tipping of a mobile goal, the teams faced off in a rematch.
Ultimately, the team lost in a close game, 28-26. Lee noted that because the team had lost the autonomous bonus, it ultimately resulted in the opponent’s win.
“Regardless of the result, it was an amazing experience, but I was super stressed,” Lee said. “My hands were shaking during all of the division elimination matches, so the driving was a bit unstable. By the time we made it out of our division, though, I stopped shaking since we had achieved our goal and were satisfied with the effort we put in throughout the year.”
