After competing in VEX Robotics for a few years, Warsaw Area Career Center will host its first state qualifier tournament Saturday. Abbi Richcreek, WACC co-coach, said the qualification rounds start at 9:30 a.m. in the Career Center gymnasium. The contests will go until 5:30 p.m. or later, co-coach Paul Zakaria said. It is open to the public and admission is free. “They will see some of the best robots in the state competing for national contest,” Zakaria said. A team must win a qualifier tournament to advance to state, which is March 7 at Warren Central. The winner at state advances to World competition in April in Kentucky, Richcreek said. Zakaria said up to this point, teams had six or seven chances to win a qualifier tournament. After each contest, teams revised their robots, so the robots at Saturday’s contest should be some of the best. He said there are only a handful of qualifier tournaments left, including Warsaw’s. “If a team doesn’t qualify, they don’t go to state,” he said. Richcreek said 37 teams so far have signed up to compete this weekend, including teams from Greenwood, Royal Center, Plymouth, Portland and Crown Point. Warsaw will have three teams competing, including senior Caleb Schooley’s team. Schooley won a qualifier in December and will advance to state, but if he makes the top eight Saturday, he can select another Warsaw team to join him to compete for the top, Zakaria said. The game for the VEX Robotics competitions this year is “Skyrise,” with a focus on building upward. Two alliances, red and blue, composed of two teams each, compete on the field in each match. Alliances compete by scoring colored cubes in floor goals, on posts or on their Skyrise, by owning posts and by building their Skyrise sections. A bonus is awarded to the alliance that has the most total points at the end of the autonomous period. There are 44 cubes – 22 red and 22 blue – and 14 Skyrise sections in a VEX Skyrise match. Each robot has one cube available as a preload and seven Skyrise sections available to be placed in its alliance’s autoloader during the match. Forty cubes start at designated locations on the field. There are 10 posts of varying height around the field and each alliance has one Skyrise base, the rules state. Richcreek said, “We encourage our community to come see what impressive engineering skills are found here and in our department.” She thanked the sponsors, including Medtronic, and the volunteers from Biomet and Zimmer. “We offer a well-rounded, innovative engineering competition for our students,” she said.
