Two robotics teams from Cranleigh School represented the United Kingdom at the recent VEX Robotics High School World Championships in Dallas, Texas. Both Cranleigh teams 18650D & 18650E secured their spot at the World Championships by placing 4th and 5th respectively in the High School National Skills rankings at the UK National Finals earlier in the year. The teams flew out to Dallas on Monday 24th April to compete alongside 800 top robotics teams from across the globe. Team 18650D was assigned to the “Opportunity Division” and Team 18650E were assigned to the “Math Division”.
Competition day 1 was dedicated to pit setup and robot inspection. After nearly 5,000 miles of travelling both robots needed attention to ensure they were competition ready and both teams needed to make adjustments and upgrades to their creations. Once both of the robots had passed inspection and our pit areas were decorated to an extent that would not look out of place for the upcoming Coronation, the teams headed back to the hotel to freshen up for the opening ceremony. Two team members from each team represented the UK at the Opening Ceremony which took place in the 10,000 seat “VEX Dome” and also live streamed across the world.
Competition days 2+3 were intense with 11 matches for each team across both days. Both teams had to be patient before the wins started to come their way with 18650D narrowly losing out by 10 points or less for three matches in a row! The standard was incredibly high with over 290 points scored on average per match during qualification and our teams were certainly enjoying their experience. Team 18650D finished 65th and 18650E 79th overall in their divisions of 82. Both teams were rightfully proud to be teams in the two highest scoring divisions out of the ten! Although the teams did not make it through to the knockouts we continued to soak up the atmosphere and support the remaining UK team in the Grand Finals inside the VEX Dome where next year’s game was also revealed.
Well done to all of the team members involved in what was a truly memorable and extremely worthwhile competition!
Mr Jon Taylor, Head of Design Engineering
