By SooToday.com Staff
SooToday.com
Saturday, April 18, 2009

NEWS RELEASES

THE KNIGHTS
OF THE ALLOY
ROBOTICS TEAM

*************************
It was a do-or-die match for the Knights of Alloy's final match today and the match would prove to be another tough fight to the finish.

Another two minutes of back-and forth battles with high defending along with small scores adding up throughout the match.

As the bell sounded and the team waited for the official score, they knew it could be anybody's game - and the score was announced - it was a 54-52 win for the Sault's Alliance.

So going into the playoff draft, the Sault team sits ranked 34th of the 90 teams in their division, and must now wait to see if they have impressed enough team captains to be chosen to proceed to the playoffs.

******************************
A Tough loss for the Knights

The first match for the final session of the round-robin is complete and it was a real nail-biter for the Sault team.

Two evenly-matched alliances hit the floor and for the entire two-minute game, it was a battle with eight lead switches in 60 seconds.

Balls scored back and forth on both sides and the Sault's team was up by two points in the final seconds when the opponents tossed a buzzer-beater in the final second - a 15-point bonus ball that hit the edge of their target trailer and stuck to it - giving The Knights of Alloy a disappointing 82-70 point loss.

This drops the Algoma District School Board team down to 40th place with one more seed match game to go at 11:09 a.m.

That will conclude their round-robin portion and will also be a crucial must-win game to allow the team to stay in the top one-third of the division before the alliance playoff draft at 11:30 a.m.

*************************
After four matches

The fortunes of Team 1535 from the Sault have climbed over the past two matches as The Knights of Alloy managed to pull out two more wins in this afternoon's matches at the Atlanta World Robotics Championships.

Game three saw the team enter a strategic role with its alliance partners and played it perfectly.

In their first dump phase, they hit the target with all seven balls and added two more in the opening minute of the two-minute game.

In the second hand, they used the new traction control program to target and pin the opponent's sharpshooter and effectively took it out of the match with a strong push.

The end score was a 72-30 win with the Sault team posting half of the alliance points.

Match four would prove to be a real battle with all six robots having strong scoring potential.

"Holly" opened with a four-ball dump followed by three more, and went defensive again, as all robots were scrambling for every ball to win.

In the closing seconds, an alliance partner launched the super cell (a 15-point bonus ball) that hit the target just before the closing bell, which cemented a 75-56 win.

This leaves the local ADSB team with a 3-1 win-loss record and a current rank of 13th place in the 90-team division, with one more round-robin game to go today, and two more to finish tomorrow.

*************************
A win and a loss

After two games in the round-robin format of the competition, Team 1535 has posted one win and one loss and is currently standing in 20th position out of 90 teams in the Archimedes division.

In their first game, the team struggled to score with both the human player and the robot itself, with a few missed shots and empty dumps.

The opposition brought some fast machines who were hard to target and the end result was a tough 94-54 point loss.

During their second game, the team was matched with strong scoring partners, and changed their strategy to a more defensive mode to take advantage of a new traction control program that team programmer Ian Graham had just uploaded.

The change worked, as Holly was now able to gain valuable traction on the slippery surface, and also scored many more points.

Combined with the human shooter, Cody Lucente, they were able to post 40 points to combine for a 92-80 point squeaker of a win.

Game three will commence shortly, at 2:06 (match 39), with their fourth game at 2:48 (match 46), and the last game of the afternoon will happen at 4:30 (match 63).

Play resumes tomorrow morning with match 74 at 8:51 a.m. and match 97 at 11:09 a.m. - their last round-robin match of the competition.

*************************
Practice day ends with The Knights of Alloy running well

The First day of the Atlanta World Robotics Championships had the Knights of Alloy’s robot “Holly” running very well right of the crate and ready to compete in tomorrow’s round -robin seed matches.

The Sault team’s robot played four matches, with some modifications to the conveyor and ball capture system that now allows it to pick up game balls three times faster than before and this now allows the robot to obtain more scoring opportunities.

The team worked on coordinating their communications strategies and adjusting to an unusually slick playing surface, with many robots sliding more than usual on this low-friction playing floor.

Unlike previous regional events this year, the team discovered that there are many very strong entries this year, and realizes that this will be a very hard battle once the games start to count for real tomorrow.

They eagerly await the match-up data to come out in the morning, so that they can begin to develop the necessary strategies to create some willing alliances for tomorrow’s games.

Play begins at 9 a.m. and will continue until 5 p.m., when 75 per cent of the seed matches will be done and Saturday will see the final seed matches played out.

PHOTO CAPTION: Drivers in the pits - robot driver Jake Cuglietta (left) and team commander (Ian Graham), prepare to pull “Holly” out for a practice match, while team mentor (Tenaris machinist Joe Eder), gives it the A-OK to head out.

*************************
To continue, click here.