Dear OCCRA Vex Teams,
Today I saw a real benefit to using the OCCRA VEX template that I didn’t realize. During the OCCRA Competition finals match, RO Ravens and Catholic Central were partners on the red, VEX Field. Both teams had autonomous capability and could score independently but were trying to score two autonomous field goals together. They finally did achieve two field goals, however, it took 8 more seconds than allowed.
Detriot Catholic Central achieved this task, without field reprogramming, by delaying the start of autonomous operation (not the 15 second period) by using the start switch as outlined in the official start procedure.
So, RO Ravens scored in autonomous, then moved out of scoring position to allow DCC to get into position to score their own field goal (but 8 seconds too late- second autonomous goal scored at 1:52- should we increase autonomous scoring period next year? - how about 2 separate scoring positions?).
Hats off to the first successfully scored autonomous dual Vex Field goals in OCCRA 2008 competition - and at the last match of the finals to boot!
Oh, boy the way, the final Championship match score was Blue Alliance 16 to Red Alliance 9. Blue (1213 - solo) scored 9 points on Vex field (56% of the final score). Red scored 9 points on the Vex Field (100% of the final score). Both Alliance Vex Scores effectively canceled each others and the Blue Alliance won by scoring two field goals (6) on the large field.
At least two semi-final match scores for RO Ravens was decided by the 6 to 9 points score on the VEX field. VEX scores have been proven to make a difference at the OCCRA County Championship Tournament! OCCRA Teams, take notice.