Robowranglers Win Weekend Tourney and Industrial Design Award
The Greenville High School Robowranglers competed in their first of three regional competitions, the Alamo Regional Tournament, this past weekend in San Antonio, Tex. The tournament included 66 teams from various regions of the USA, China, Turkey, Canada and the Dominican Republic. The Robowranglers finished the tournament in first place and also took home the Industrial Design Award.
The Robowranglers brought their robot, Renegade, “which we have been working on since January 9th in the 2016 FIRST Robotics game, Stronghold,” said Robowranglers coach and Robotics Director, Adrienne Emerson. “It’s a mid-evil themed game that consists of driving over your opponent’s defenses to enter their courtyard, then throwing boulders into goals on their castle to weaken it. Once the castle has been weakened, robots can park or hang on their opponents’ castles to capture it for extra points,” she said.
The Robowranglers won all eight of their qualification matches and finished the tournament as the number one ranked team. They selected team 231, High Voltage, from Pasadena, Tex., and team 5726, STEM ECHS, from San Antonio, Tex., to work with them in the elimination rounds.
The alliance went undefeated and ended the tournament as the Alamo Regional Winners, with a 14-0 record throughout the weekend. The Robowranglers also won the Industrial Design Award, sponsored by General Motors, which celebrates form and function in an efficiently designed machine that effectively addresses the game challenge.
The Robowranglers will next compete this week in the Dallas Regional on March 24th-26th at the Irving Convention Center. They will also compete in the Waterloo Regional in Waterloo, Canada on March 31st-April 2nd. The FIRST World Championship will be held in St. Louis, MO April 27th-30th.
FIRST Robotics is an award-winning tradition of GISD’s STEM initiatives. For more information about FIRST Robotics and the Robowranglers, contact Adrienne Emerson at emersona@greenvilleisd.com or 903.453.3741.