Final Results from Ontario VEX IQ Robotics Championships

Supplied…
The Elementary Division team from Missarenda Consolidated Public School (in Missanabie) has done it – they’ve won an invitation to the VEX IQ World Robotics Championships!
With final matches concluding at the Provincial Championships in Mississauga, Sault and district teams performed well and had many respectable results.  Out of the 37 teams competing, 8 teams were from the Northern Ontario district qualifiers, with several schools posting top-half overall finishes.
In Robot Skills, where driver teams and programmers compete in single-robot driving and programming contests, the top team from the north was the Holy Family Flames, posting an impressive 6th place final result.  FH Clergue’s “S.M.A.K.” finished 11th, followed by Superior Heights “Witcher”, RM Moore’s Megabots, and Notre Dame du Sault’s “NDS Robotics” who were 12th, 13th and 14th respectively.
In Team Matchplay, where teams of 2-robots worked together in random pairs during round robin play, the “Flames” was the top local team, ending the day in 5th place, with “S.M.A.K” ranked 12th, and “Witcher” in 19th, and the Blind River “Vex Cubs” in 20th.  All four of those teams advanced to the playoff round.
In the playoffs, Witcher and the Vex Cubs were paired as the 9th-seed Alliance in the finals, scoring 18 points in their playoff final for a 9th place final ranking.  The Holy Family Flames, who were paired up with Brampton’s Discobots posted a 45-point score for a final ranking of 7th.  FH Clergue’s “SMAK” was matched with the “Broken Gears” from Fenwick, and scored an impressive 53 point match, finishing as the 4th place pair, the highest in the playoffs for the Northern teams.
In the final Awards of the day, the team from Missanabie was selected as recipients of the special “Judge’s Award”, for strong performances and overall robot design. F.H.Clergue’s “S.M.A.K” brought home the Sportsmanship trophy.
The final surprise of the event came when the 9 teams from Ontario to earn World Championships were announced.  By having the 3rd place overall ranking for all Ontario Elementary teams (grades 3 to 5) in Robot Skills during the entire season, earned during their efforts in the Sault College Qualifying event last month, the two boys from Missanabie (brothers Hunter and Chase Martel) secured their invitation to the World Championships, which will take place in Louisville, Kentucky in April.  This is the first time a Northern Ontario team has earned a VEX World’s invitation.
Three local high school teams, from Korah, C.A.S.S. and St. Mary’s will also be competing at their Provincial Championships in St. Catharines next weekend, where more World Invitations will be earned at the secondary school level.