Mashpee Robotics Team Wins Southern New England Championship – CapeNews.net

For the first time in program history, the Mashpee Middle-High School robotics team has won the Southern New England VEX Robotics Championship.

With the victory on March 27, four members of the program earned a chance to compete in the Live Remote VEX Robotics World Championship beginning on May 14.

I was so proud of the kids, teacher and robotics coach Amanda Hough said. For six years of competing in VEX Robotics this was the goal. It was always to be able to control their own destiny, play well as a team and work together to achieve their goal.

Representing Mashpee at the world championship will be the sophomore duo of Sean Ware and Camden Perry, who call themselves team Out of Stock, and team Free Shipping, which is composed of their older brothersseniors Nathan Ware and Nathan Perry. All four qualified for virtual worlds last year as well. However, this is the first time since 2019 that Mashpee competed in the Southern New England Championship, as last years event was canceled due to COVID-19.

It was even more exciting than any other competition could have been. It was a return, a comeback, Nathan Perry said. The competitions last year were so different. To come back to our first big tournament, and to win it feels really good. Not only that its the first one back, but it could be the last one back.

The championship was vastly different than the type of matches Mashpee played in this season. In the fall, the team went to socially distant in-person events that were limited in capacity. As winter came, Mashpee participated in virtual competitions.

This event took place at Hopkinton High School and consisted of 40 teams, including 26 from Massachusetts. Only teams from Massachusetts could attend in-person due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

The in-person teams competed in a game called Change Up. In this game, the teams of two are paired up with another team so that four total robots are in the ring, two per side. The games objective is to take different-colored balls and to place them in a tube. The scoring is fluid and can change until the round is over, as teams can un-score the other side.

In a game like this with many moving parts, having a good strategy and a solid alliance is key.

Working as sister teams, even beyond the strategical component of it, we sort of built the robotics together. We know how each others robot works. Knowing those strengths and weaknesses is really helpful, Nathan Perry said about pairing up with his brothers team.

At the championship, five qualifying matches were played among 18 different teams. In these qualifying matches, the team one is paired with is totally random and teams have to play the hand they are dealt. After the qualifying matches, teams are seeded based on results. Out of Stock finished second overall with a 5-0 record, and Free Shipping finished fifth with a 4-1 record. The Aviators, another team from Mashpee, led by Katrina Mayen and Jamie Hughes, also finished 4-1 before getting knocked out in the quarterfinals.

After the qualifiers, the team that came in first can choose the team it wishes to partner up with for the elimination matches.

Thanks to Out of Stocks high seed, they were able to scoop up their brothers for the playoff matches.

The advantage of having your sister team in your alliance is that we had a lot of time to prepare and practice, Sean said.

Going into those elimination matches to try and take home the title, the strategy really gets intense. Fortunately, by aligning with a team from your own organization, you have time to practice. We have set strategies for how we are going to take down teams, Nathan Ware said.

But what if they were not able to team up?

We were pretty confident to get into the top rank, Nathan Ware said.

The plan was sort of to come up with a plan, Nathan Perry added, referring to if things did not work out.

In the quarterfinals and semifinals, the Mashpee brothers cruised to victories, outscoring their opponents by a combined 66-12.

However, in the finals they knew they had a tougher matchup.

Nathan Ware said that in the final matchup they faced off against a team from Hopkinton and a team from Milton. He said they were actually friends with those two teams, as the robotics community is small.

Another interesting wrinkle to this tournament compared to prior years was the need to accommodate social distancing. Only the driver of the robot is allowed to stand next to the ring. This means the other teammate needs to stand at least six feet away. Sean and Nathan Ware are the drivers for their teams, meaning the Perrys could not be on top of the action.

It was really fun, but we were kind of separated from the Wares because we werent the ones driving and had to stand six feet back, Camden said. It was like, Ooh, I know that they know what to do, but I hope they do it.

Theres only so much we can do to coach them. Standing back is sort of just an excitement, waiting and hoping they can do what they need to do, Nathan Perry said.

To win the championship, the finals were best two out of three. Mashpee did what it needed to do, winning 20-12 and 19-14.

It was probably the most fun we had. Playing against your friends for the win was really exciting and a fun way to end the year in southern New England, Nathan Ware said.

Although it was unspoken, the boys all agreed that competing in such a big event had pressure to it. On top of the pressure to compete and perform, Sean and Camden had an additional pressure: to make sure they did their part in what could potentially be their older brothers last tournament.

We didnt talk about it that much, but we all agreed this is the last big one we have so we have to make it worth it. It was a lot of pressure, but we felt really good after all our practice, Sean said.

Despite the added pressure, the Wares and the Perrys agreed that getting to compete alongside their siblings made the event even more special.

I think its awesome, Nathan Ware said. Those teams they have their friends to compete with and its a fun thing, but these are things that we are going to remember as a family and go back and talk about for years to come.

Its really cool to stand alongside not only your teammates and your friends, but your family and its cool to win as an intertwined family, Nathan Perry said. It feels closer. It feels like it has more weight to it because it means so much to us.

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Mashpee Robotics Team Wins Southern New England Championship - CapeNews.net