At the end of the 240 qualification matches, the top-seeded teams pick their alliance partners, and these 16 alliances then battle it out in sudden death matches to reach the final to determine the divisional champion.
Free Range qualified in 11th seed and picked team 8059Z aka “Blank” from Singapore as their alliance partner.
Last 16 match 8 – https://youtu.be/_fa01F602Hc
This was a really solid win for Free Range – our autonomous routine delivered the bonus points and both Blank and Free Range got down to the business of out-stacking the competition. With 10 seconds to go Blank almost topple over when placing their stack in the 10 points zone, but they recovered and we finished with a 30 points lead over our opponents.
Final Score – 125 to 95
A very convincing win that moves us into the quarterfinals.
Quarterfinals Match 4 – https://youtu.be/je5QunKwWEI
Our autonomous routine doesn’t quite work, and our opponents score 2 in the 20 points zone getting them the bonus points.
Early on in the match one of the robots on the opposing side dies and can’t move. Both Blank and Free Range get cracking on building stack after stack winning every other available high stack bonus.
This was a massive win for us 139 to 54 and we move onto the semifinals.
Semifinals Match 2 – https://youtu.be/1W5PBpXDBqc
Our opponents almost had a disaster – they remembered at the very last second to plug in the power expander on their robot. If they hadn’t caught that then they would have been dead in the water.
We miss our autonomous routine for the 2nd match in a row but we focus on stacking and scoring big stacks. Throughout the match, it felt like the teams were evenly matched but we outscored them by 31 points winning 139 to 109
We can hardly believe it – we’ve made it through to the divisional finals!!!!
The Final – https://youtu.be/BYBUGsXWVAw
In previous years this would have been the best of 3, however, this year the final is a one-match, winner takes all, sudden death battle for gold.
Canada + China versus New Zealand + Singapore
As the announcer called out, Free Range & Blank is the Cinderella story – upsetting 3 higher seeded alliances to reach the final.
Simply put though, 5225A and 8825S are a stunning alliance. 5225A were crowned the World Skills champions earlier in the week and they’ve had a 100% win record throughout the competition. After this, they go on to win the title of World Champions without conceding a single defeat during the whole competition. A remarkable achievement.
The final score 134 to 83
Free Range were beaten but we felt as though we’d won. We progressed further in the tournament than we had expected, we got to the final, we brought home a trophy. Whoohooo!!!!
Free Range Robotics 