ST. CLOUD (WJON News) - Hundreds of students, advisors, and parents are at the River’s Edge Convention Center this weekend for the Minnesota VEX Robotics State Championship.

Results:

In the high school tournament:

  • The Tournament Champions were teams 8110C (Team Llamas) and 8110R (Team Top Gear), both from Mankato West Robotics.
  • The Robot Skills Champion was team 7225F (Team Southland Southbots) from Southland High School in Adams, Minnesota.
  • The Excellence Award went to Team 84886A (Team Monkey Buccaneers) from Waseca High School.

In the middle school tournament: 

  • The Tournament Champions were teams 7225G (Team Southland Gearbots) from Southland Middle School in Adams, MN, and 81101F (Team The Leftovers) from Mankato West Robotics.
  • The Robot Skills Champion was 81101D (Team Igneous) from Mankato West Robotics.
  • The Excellence Award winner was 7225G (Team Southland Gearbots) from Southland Middle School in Adams, MN.

For a complete list of the high school tournament awards, click here

For a complete list of the middle school tournament awards, click here. 

Introducing “The St. Cloud Splash”:

The St. Cloud Splash team readies for competition. Photo: Jeff McMahon, WJON
The St. Cloud Splash team readies for competition. Photo: Jeff McMahon, WJON
loading...

The St. Cloud Splash robot, one of the entries from St. Cloud Tech High School, is already a world-ranked machine according to team member Marcus Wade.

Worldwide we are ranked 203 out of over 10,000 teams. We've been going hard, we've been doing really well and won tournaments twice. And we're hoping to make it to finals this tournament right here in St. Cloud, (it’s) like home-field advantage.

AM 1240 WJON logo
Get our free mobile app

The splash robot will be randomly teamed with another robot and face off against another two-robot team with the goal of moving balls from one side of the arena to the other.

Four teams combine to compete in an early qualifying round Friday in St. Cloud. Photo: Jeff McMahon, WJON.
Four teams combine to compete in an early qualifying round Friday in St. Cloud. Photo: Jeff McMahon, WJON.
loading...

Team Member Claudia Schlough explains how the points are scored.

The goal of the game is to get the green and red color tri-balls into the goals on your offensive side. If they're on your side, you get two points. If they're under the goal, you get five. And then, you'll see robots that themselves off the ground. That also gets you points at the end of the match.

In general, one robot moves the tri-balls to the net, while the other works to launch the tri-balls from one end of the area to the other. Team member Drew Scheskie says the biggest design challenge for this year’s robot was the catapult system.

It took a lot of different designs and a lot of different hardships. We had to figure out a way for the piece of metal to hit the tri-ball, like a kind of trebuchet.

Teams work to feed a robot launching tri-balls to the other side of the arena. Photo: Jeff McMahon, WJON
Teams work to feed a robot launching tri-balls to the other side of the arena. Photo: Jeff McMahon, WJON
loading...

The event is open to the public and live-streamed online. For live coverage of the tournament, or instantly updated standings, find the tournament website here.

READ RELATED ARTICLES

 

ALSO: Former Minnesota Twins All-Star's Home for Sale - Complete With Brewery

More From AM 1240 WJON