Pierce Robotics Competes in World Competition
by Haiden Magnussen
The Pierce High Robotics team competed in the 2023 VEX Robotics World Championship at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas, from April 25-27. Team 71414A, also known as ATOM13 with a robot named Gary, competed with team members: Travis Emory, Bode Hoffmann, Tate Reinke, Matthew Steffen, and Dalton Svoboda.
“I couldn’t be happier with our season,” Svoboda, a senior, states, “(and) not only this season but my robotics career. When Matt and I started, we had no idea what we would eventually get ourselves into. To see us progress from being bad, to qualifying for state, to this year qualifying for worlds, is just awesome. The world robotics experience is one I will not soon forget. The competing and stressing was fun. I, however, more so enjoyed all the people. Whether they be from China, Puerto Rico, Nebraska, or Texas, it was just fun to meet all these new people. I am also so thankful for the team we had this year. Our super team had everything that I could ever ask for. Lastly, I would like to thank Mrs. Dostal and the school for taking us to competitions and waking up at 5:30 a.m. to let some kids build a robot. I am truly going to miss this section of my life, and I hope others had as much fun as I did in robotics. I think 71414A/ATOM13 truly made its mark at Pierce High.”
In VEX robotics, there were over 28,800 worldwide teams, and only 809 teams qualified for the world championship. There were over 40 different countries being represented at this event. At worlds, there were 10 different divisions; Pierce was in the Innovate division.
In the skills competition part of the world championship, the team finished 114 out of 809. Out of all the competitions in the season, they placed 242 out of 5511.
In the qualifying matches competition, Pierce won four while dropping six matches.
Teams are randomly assigned to be teammates for each match facing two other randomly assigned partners. ATOM13 finished 43rd out of 81 teams in the Innovate division. The top 32 teams qualified for the final division tournament.
“The ATOM13 PHS robotics team has taken the PHS robotics program to a very high level in three short years. They achieved their goal of VEX worlds by putting in countless hours of research, design, building, testing, adjusting, programming, etc. ATOM13 has built three complete robots this year all while being very successful at many other extracurricular activities to make sure they would be competitive with the best in the world—and they succeeded in all phases. Many thanks to the school, parents, fans, and sponsors for all of their support this season,” says head sponsor Treva Dostal.
ATOM13 was consistently offensively productive. They were swift in scoring points while providing sufficient defense. The team was not always paired with teams who could do both. Team 71414A did their best but without a partner that could do both facets, the team suffered some tough losses.
The world competition wrapped up the season for the robotics team.
