A Yukon Lego robotics team has won a second place Champion’s Award in B.C.

Five Yukon Teams (four from Whitehorse, one from Faro) competed at the B.C./YT. Provincial FIRST LEGO League Challenge Championships.

The Champs were held March 11 at Meadowridge School in Maple Ridge. 33 teams took part.

The Yukon AllSparks came away with the second place Champion Award. According to First Robotics B.C., this “most prestigious award celebrates the team that embodies the FIRST LEGO League experience by fully embracing the FIRST Core Values while achieving excellence and innovation in both the Robot Game and the Innovation Project.”

The Yukon AllSparks are Johnathon Coyne, 14 and Ethan Janes, 12.

“The Yukon AllSparks have been a competing team for many years, and have received awards in previous years, but this year (their final year as a team) they will be advancing to the highest level a team can achieve. Out of tens of thousands of registered teams, close to only 100 have been invited to the world events – what an amazing representation for the Yukon,” said Leanne Watson, president of the Robotics North Society.

The Star spoke with Janes and his father Kevin Friday.

Kevin said the following four teams also took part in the Champs:

• Distinguished Victorious Geniuses (DVG) from Del Van Gorder School in Faro – Josiah Wilcox, Monica Kazda, Benjamin McFadyen, Jackson Staveley, and Olive Passmore;

• The Brickbarians – siblings Edan, Isabella and Arie Ganzer;

• H20h-Dam! – Asher Johnson, Aira Yoshimura and Sunny Moore and

• MKG, Marc-André Gillis, Adrien Gregoire and Paul L’Heureux.

Kevin Janes said the other teams “did great. I think everybody was happy with their presentations and everybody had some success on the table. They had their robot runs down.”

Janes said the competition went “quite well” for the AllSparks.

“They did their judging rounds first. They gave a presentation on their Innovation project, which is focused on cleaning solar panels.

“After that, they do question and answer for five minutes. And then right after that, they did their presentation on their robot design.”

Janes said the AllSparks did quite well on the Q and A.

“They got lots of great questions from the judging panel.

“For their robot runs there on the table, they did 280 points on the first run, 225 points on the second run and 290 on their third run.”

Teams were judged on a points system based on Innovation, Robot Design, Core Values, and the Robot Table, each worth 25 per cent of their overall total.

“For Core Values, judges look to see how the teams interact with each other and with the other teams,” explained Janes.

The AllSparks finished second overall out of 32 teams.

“They were thrilled,” related Janes. “For their robot run in particular, they had really focused on improving the reliability of the robot from the Yukon qualifier back on January 21. Going into B.C., it performed quite well for them. They more or less had a perfect run for their third run for their robot.”

Janes was asked what the key to the AllSparks success was.

“They’re very focused,” he replied. “They really just enjoy working with the Lego and doing the Innovation projects. They really enjoy the research end of it.”

Ethan Janes said he “really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun.”

As for reasons for their success, Janes said, “We put a lot of time into it. We worked quite a bit on it, especially in the month lead-up to the tournament.

“Me and my partner Jonathan, we both really enjoy doing it. Wanting to do it makes it easier – if you just don’t enjoy it, then it’s harder to move forward.

“And also just focusing and trying to put out our best work.

“The biggest part is just having fun.”

As for the overall experience, the young Janes said “I loved it. I really enjoyed Lego League. Everybody’s just so happy and everybody wants to be there. It’s such a great atmosphere, especially in the tournaments.

“We’ve also learned a lot throughout the year. Like things that aren’t taught in school, like time management, we’ve learned a lot in Lego League.”

Next up, AllSparks will be competing in the World Edge Open tournament in Long Beach, California.

“We’ve got a little bit of time to get ready for that,” said Janes.

They’ve got quite a bit of preparation ahead of them.

“We’re gonna need to improve our robot’s reliability, timing, just really practice on the robot table,” related Janes.

“And do our next iteration for the project and do more research and more presentations.”

Janes added they need to “talk to different experts and other people who have experience in the solar panel field.”

Other preparations will include obtaining sponsorship and fundraising. They’ll also have to fill up a 10-foot-long display table, whereas up to now, they’ve been working with a four-by-four table.

According to Kevin, the World Edge Open is the highest competition level that there is for the sport. 80 teams, including 60 from Canada and the US, will be competing.

Kevin was asked how it feels to see his son have this kind of success.

“It’s great,” he responded. “I love seeing all the hard work that they’ve put in during the season work out for them in the actual competitions.

“And just how much fun they have. That’s one of the key components. Competition’s important, but the camaraderie that the teams have while they’re there, and these guys really enjoy that element of it.

“I’m very proud of Jonathan and Ethan, for all the work they put in because it’s a very intensive mental sport, where you have to put in the time in terms of designing your robot, coming up with strategy, deciding a problem that you want to research and putting together potential solutions and reaching out to different experts to get feedback from them. So they have to really put themselves out there. And it’s great to see them advance, especially as a team together because I’ve gotten to watch them evolve in their sophistication over the last four years. They keep on building on top of what they did previous years. So it’s great to see that skill advancement and the fun that they’re having.”

Kevin added the AllSparks started working on this project in September of 2022.

“They have good stamina, and focus.

“Both Johnathan and Ethan are an absolute joy to be around.”