Pequot Lakes robotics team is part of third-place state tourney win

ST. PAUL — The 11th Minnesota State High School League Robotics Tournament returned May 6 to the University of Minnesota at Williams Arena with 36 teams participating, including the Pequot Lakes Patriotics of the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference.

This tournament featured 19 teams fresh off their World Championships Tournament in Houston, Texas, just a couple of weeks ago, including the Patriotics. Two of the teams made it into the finals. This ensured high levels of competition at this event.

No team went undefeated and all but one team in the state tournament ended up with at least multiple losses during the eight qualification rounds. At the end of the qualification round Saturday, May 6, the Patriotics were ranked seventh with a 6-2 record.

In robotics, teams compete in alliances made up of three teams. In this instance, the top four seeds choose two other teams to compete with them going into the finals. This is essentially a draft in which the higher seed gets the first pick and so on.

Then the No. 1 alliance faces off against the No. 4 alliance and No. 2 vs. No. 3. It is run the same as most double elimination tournaments with the only exception being that the final championship matchup is a two out of three set.

Once the alliance selections were complete, the Patriotics moved into the playoff rounds after the No. 1 seed alliance led by Becker drafted the Pequot Lakes and Greenbush-Middle River teams.

This year's playoffs narrative seemed to be one of upsets. This was evident from the opening round as both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds suffered losses, pushing them down into the lower bracket. This set the table for a battle to secure a minimum third-place finish and chance to stay alive.

The No. 1 seed that included Pequot Lakes came out on top with the third largest score of the tournament at that point of 174 points.

The No. 1 seed was a single win away from the finals and a chance at a rematch against the No. 4 seed. However, first they faced the No. 3 seed featuring teams from Fairmont, Cold Spring and Cokato. This match resulted in the largest offensive output by two teams in the entire tournament.

Posting a final score of 185-184, the final result was a 1-point loss for the team that included Pequot Lakes. However, it did secure them a third-place finish for the state tournament.