Supplied by the Algoma District School Board…
The Sault’s Lone Wolf robotics team arrived in Louisville Kentucky ready to compete against the top 600 high school teams world wide and had tough battles in all of their matches. In the opening ceremonies, where teams from 47 countries sat in attendance, Lone Wolf was featured on the main stage, accepting their award for top inspirational STEM video, created and submitted months ago.
In the event itself, on day one, Lone Wolf drew some very tough opposition, and although they posted some of the top scores of the day, still ended up being defeated in all of their first three matches. Their opener saw an excellent 95-point effort get defeated by a 105-point opponent. They followed with a 105 point game but still lost by 11 points. A 3rd loss came with a defensive checking game that led to an 82-80 defeat.
Regrouping for day 2, their round-robin matches had them facing more stiff competition, but they managed to add 4 wins, 1 tie and a loss. On day 3, in their final match, they posted their highest point total of the event, and posted an impressive 143-78 win, and posting a 41st out of 96 in their division, even though their overall point total was 4th highest in their division.
Their chances to get into the playoff rounds would depend on a higher ranked team noticing their success and picking them to form an alliance partnership. And yes, the 9th ranked team from Monroe, Connecticut chose them in the playoff draft and they advanced to the “round-of-16” for their division.
However, the single-elimination format saw them up against a very tough 8th-seed alliance and during their first playoff match, in the dying seconds of play, their opposition landed an impressive 40-point stack of cones and snatched a 145-110 win from Lone Wolf, eliminating them from the rest of playoffs.
The day was not over though, as the Lone Wolf team won the division “Team Work” award, partly due to their efforts to create a university VEX team which also made it to Worlds this weekend.
So the Lone Wolf team ends their season with an excellent showing, and are returning to the Sault with two impressive trophies. Meanwhile, starting their own competition sets tomorrow the pair of IQ teams from Notre Dame (“Petits Loups”and “Grands Loups”) and the F.H.Clergue foursome “iSMAK” are set to compete in their division events which will conclude with their playoff rounds on Tuesday.