GREENVILLE: The Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation hosted the VEX Robotics Virtual World Celebration and the first-ever Fantasy Robotics Tournament on Saturday, April 25 to honor its large global community of students, coaches and volunteers.
More than 2,300 teams from around the world virtually competed in the simulated Fantasy Robotics Tournament for the VEX Robotics Competition Tower Takeover and VEX IQ Challenge Squared Away seasons.
Teams saw updates of the simulation results throughout the Celebration while waiting to see who would be unveiled as the world champions, while also celebrating the season’s highlights, Online Challenges winners, Inspiration All Star winners, and the 2020-21 games.
All teams that qualified for the 2020 VEX Robotics World Championship were included in the simulated Fantasy Robotics Tournament, and the winners of the tournament were announced during the VEX Robotics Virtual World Celebration.
2020 Fantasy Robotics Tournament World Champions include:
VEX ROBOTICS COMPETITION WORLD CHAMPIONS – MIDDLE SCHOOL
Team 4082A, Rocket Robots, Freedom, Wisconsin, United States
Team 3324A, Supernovas A, North Hollywood, California, United States
VEX ROBOTICS COMPETITION DIVISION CHAMPIONS – MIDDLE SCHOOL
Team 525X, Irradiated Gamma, Sulphur Springs, Texas, United States
Team 88825D, Vermilion Bird, Shanghai, Shanghai, China
Team 1847A, Tianjiabing Middle School, 上海, Shanghai, China
Team 9181K, Seaquam Seahawks, Delta, British Columbia, Canada
Team 319K, Build It, Palo Cedro, California, United States
Team 7177B, Iteration Happens Plan B, Stamping Ground, Kentucky, United States
VEX ROBOTICS COMPETITION WORLD CHAMPIONS – HIGH SCHOOL
Team 2616J, Jersey Devils, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, United States
Team 7870E, The Usual Suspects, Henderson, Nevada, United States
VEX ROBOTICS COMPETITION DIVISION CHAMPIONS – HIGH SCHOOL
Team 2114X, Sweep The Leg, Chandler, Arizona, United States
Team 4410C, Technocracy-Charlie, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, United States
Team 4862B, Coltenoids Banana, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Team 2775J, Jackson Area Robotics, Jackson, Tennessee, United States
Team 2011C, Flapjacks, Broadview Heights, Ohio, United States
Team 6008E, Eclipse, Richwood, Ohio, United States
Team 574D, Iron Pride, Syracuse, Indiana, United States
Team 7862Z, VEXecutioners, Hesston, Kansas, United States
Team 2131Z, Leftover Eggrolls, Kaysville, Utah, United States
Team 8481X, Bridger Bot, Bozeman, Montana, United States
Team 2011F, FaZe Clan, Broadview Heights, Ohio, United States
Team 3141S, Lochnut Monster, Bellevue, Nebraska, United States
Team 536E, AiR, Appleton, Wisconsin, United States
Team 1010A, TenTon Robotics, West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
VEXU COMPETITION WORLD CHAMPIONS
Team BLRS, Purdue SIGBots, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States
VEXU COMPETITION DIVISION CHAMPIONS
Team NJIT, NJIT Highlanders, Newark, New Jersey, United States
VEX IQ CHALLENGE WORLD CHAMPIONS – ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Team 88299A, Science museum 1, Beijing, Beijing, China
Team 46033D, Phoenix3, Beijing, Beijing, China
VEX IQ CHALLENGE DIVISION CHAMPIONS – ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Team 66889B, 南宁市中小学校外教育活动中心五队, 南宁, Guangxi, China
Team 2048H, Hooba Looba, Traverse City, Michigan, United States
Team 1111B, Barcbots Fruity Legends, Cupertino, California, United States
Team 3518A, 福州市鼓山中心小, Fuzhou City, Fujian, China
Team 7788A, North star, Beijing, Beijing, China
Team 88299B, Science museum 2, Beijing, Beijing, China
Team 94568B, Vexotics – Basketbots, San Ramon, California, United States
Team 5077D, We want to be number one, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China
Team 27052B, Huaihe(E) Road PSch-2淮河东路, Zhengzhou, Henan nil, China
Team 94666A 小海豚战队A, 泰州, Jiangsu, China
VEX IQ CHALLENGE WORLD CHAMPIONS – MIDDLE SCHOOL
Team 99900J, Dr X Academy, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
Team 22250B, The Pack, Anaheim Hills, California, United States
VEX IQ CHALLENGE DIVISION CHAMPIONS – MIDDLE SCHOOL
Team 33111C, The Biscuits, Friendswood, Texas, United States
Team 11173A, Mililani Masters, Mililani, Hawaii, United States
Team 16868A, Piethon, Markham, Ontario, Canada
Team 2956X, Cerulean Blue, Boerne, Texas, United States
Team 647X, Bot Camp X, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Team 11226B, 星星创客2队, 广东汕头, Guangdong, China
Team 6868F, RoboRobo QingChun 2, 杭州, Zhejiang, China
Team 60373A, RoboRamsIQ, Miami, Florida, United States
Team 8599B, 上海竹园小学联队, 上海, Shanghai, China
Team 95699A, Vexccelerate, London, United Kingdom
Team 8666A, Shanghai Senfuedu Robot A, Shanghai, Shanghai nil, China
Team 30040A, VCMS Robotics A, Cumming, Georgia, United States
“Although the COVID-19 outbreak prevented us from celebrating and competing in person at our annual VEX Robotics World Championship, we couldn’t pass on the opportunity to recognize the incredible talent and hard work of our community. We also crowned winners in our simulated fantasy robotics tournament, the first-ever of its kind.” said Dan Mantz, CEO of the REC Foundation. “Our dedication to advance STEM education and robotics is stronger than ever, and we are proud to help foster the next generations of innovators and problem-solvers.”
Each year, an exciting engineering challenge is presented in the form of a game for the VEX Robotics Competition / VEX IQ Challenge and is announced during the annual competition. This year’s announcement was made during the virtual celebration. The 2020-21 games are: VEX Robotics Competition Change Up and VEX IQ Challenge Rise Above. Students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors, build innovative robots and compete year-round. Students have one year to design a robot to play the game. More information can be found here: https://www.roboticseducation.org.
“Due to our current situation, over 26,000 VEX Robotics teams were impacted worldwide. Having spent thousands of hours preparing their skills and building their robots for competitions, we wanted to make sure that their efforts weren’t in vain. Hosting a global virtual event to recognize their accomplishments became the obvious choice,” said Tony Norman, CEO and President of VEX Robotics.
“Using the problem-solving principles of STEM education that we teach our students every day, we decided to use math, strategy and statistics along with our competition data to produce a one of a kind fantasy robotics tournament to crown virtual winners,” said Bob Mimlitch III, Co-Founder of VEX Robotics.
“When Bob and I first founded VEX Robotics, our mission was to provide students the tools they need to shape their future and that commitment continues today. With the launch of VEX 123 and VEX GO, we are now able to support grades Kindergarten through College, making VEX the first company to achieve a full continuum within the same educational ecosystem. But our commitment does not stop there,” added Norman. “With the introduction of the VEX AI Competition presented by the REC Foundation, we have now opened the door to the most advanced technology in competitive robotics today and look forward to next year’s VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas 2021.”
The REC Foundation’s Virtual VEX Robotics World Championship and Fantasy Robotics Tournament is presented by the Northrop Grumman Foundation. Other sponsors for this event include sponsors that support the program year-round and this event include; NASA, Autodesk, Toyota, Google, Mathworks, UPS, Nordson, and Microchip.
The Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation’s mission is to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in hands-on, affordable, and sustainable robotics engineering programs.
VEX Robotics is a leading provider of educational and competitive robotics products to schools, universities, and robotics teams around the world. The VEX 123, GO, IQ and V5 product lines span elementary, middle, and high schools with accessible, scalable, and affordable robotics solutions. Beyond science and engineering principles, a VEX Robotics project encourages teamwork, leadership, and problem solving among groups. It allows educators to easily customize projects to meet the level of students’ abilities as they inspire and prepare the STEM problem-solvers of tomorrow.