Central Okanagan students watch the annual SumoBot competition, held at the Hollywood Road Education Centre, March 5.

(CARLI BERRY - WEEKEND EDITOR / iNFOnews.ca)

After creating their favourite wrestling robots, Central Okanagan students went bot-to-bot for the ultimate title of SumoBot champion.

The annual SumoBot Battle had learners compete to knock each other’s robots out of the ring, similar to sumo wrestling. This year featured 82 robot teams and 200 students participating in two main categories of Junior (Grades 3-5) and Senior (Grades 6-9), Thursday, March 5 at the Hollywood Road Education Centre.

Grade 7 student Lucien Letvinchuk, at B.C. Online School, took the senior second place title Thursday for team Raptor.

“I was nervous at the beginning because this design is brand-new and I’d never tried doing a double-sided design before and I wasn’t sure where it was going to go," Letvinchuk said while being supported by his teammates, one of which came dressed in a giant dinosaur costume. 

With a robot that is able to attack from both front and back, this is Letvinchuk’s third time in the competition. He said he would like to pursue something computer-related as a career one day and was happy with the outcome of his battle.

Grade 7 student Chloe Shivers snatched the first place title after a harrowing battle with Letvinchuk.

“My hands were shaking so much after every match…. Once we won the first match I was so happy,” she said.

Also hailing from B.C. Online School, with team Larry’s Kingdom, based on their potato-shaped stuffy mascot Larry, the two competitors held practice matches prior to the tournament, so the outcome was pretty predictable in this instance, Shivers said.

Shivers said she likes both engineering and biology, and said she might pursue careers in both.

The competition has been held each year in March, inviting robot-building clubs to test their skills.

The students program and build their own robots, which falls in line with B.C.’s curriculum, and teaches them engineering, programming and design skills, said organizer Murray Chalmers.

Team J.J. took home first place for the Junior division.

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