Robotics team competes at world championships

The Weiser High School robotics team of Jayden Anderson, Xzavier Gonzales, Kade Hill, and William Stallings was able to represent Weiser and the state of Idaho at the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas, Texas April 25-27. The team is coached by Jon Lundberg, and the group wanted to share about their world’s experience and thank the community for their support. 

 The Vex Robotics Championships featured just 800 of the top robots/teams from around the world representing the top teams from approximately 30,000 robots/teams registered. The competition was represented by 41 of the 70 participating countries.  

 The tournament format was set up into 10 divisions of 80 teams. Each division had a qualification round/pool play with each team getting 10 matches. Teams were randomly paired up with another team to form an alliance and compete against two other teams in a match.

 After the qualification round teams were ranked from 1-80.The top 32 teams (16 two team alliances) moved onto the bracket round. The winner of each division (10 alliances), moved onto the finals, which took place at the closing ceremonies in front of about 10,000 people.

 The team members shared their memorable experience at the largest robotics competition in the world. 

 “I’m passionate about robotics, and it was astounding to see over eight hundred teams with that same passion. High school engineers from 41 different countries from around the world came to compete at this competition. It’s certainly opened my eyes to the scope of the robotics industry and reinforced my desire to go into software development,”  Anderson said. 

 Xzavier Gonzales shared that it was eye opening to see how most robots did similar things, but were all built in different ways. He enjoyed meeting with the different teams and hearing about the thought process behind each design. 

 William Stallings really wanted to thank the community for supporting the team in this experience.

 “It challenged my abilities and went beyond my expectations. It was truly an amazing experience and I enjoyed every last moment of it,” Stallings said. 

 Lundberg shared that he was incredibly proud of the team and their hard work and success throughout the season. 

 “I am very proud of the team.  First: making it to the World Championships is something very few teams achieve. They recorded a 4-6 record in competition, this places this team in the top three percent of all the robotics in the world. Secondly: this team represented Weiser, Weiser High School, their families, and themselves in the highest degree. I would like to personally thank everyone who supported us for this trip. Without this backing, this trip would not have been possible,” Lundberg said.