VNation smash it!

The atmosphere was roaring… with the team continously applauding and cheering for the entirety of the competition…

The competition:

Due to a twist of bad luck (two of their alliance teams’ robots failing), they qualified in 8th and were on the verge of being knocked out. But they convinced the #1 ranked team to select them as their alliance team for the semi-finals, and so they were into the semi-finals!

They won their semi-finals on a tie breaker and made it into the finals!

Here comes the genius: They’d spent all day determined to get their drone propulsion mechanism working! Every other team had given up and not a single team had it working, but VNATION refused to quit. Between every match all day they worked on the mechanism.

They lost their first match in the finals… won the second… and they were about to lose the third, when finally, their drone mechanism worked! The drone landed in the target box and they tied! A tie in the final tie-breaker is extraordinarily rare, and the staff had never seen one before!

It went into a double tie-breaker, and again, their drone worked perfectly – landing them the win!

This makes them the West Midlands winning alliance!

The judging:

On top of their trophy for winning the field competition, they also bring home a trophy for the Innovate Award. The judges interviewed them, examined their robot, and awarded them this award due to the ingenuity and creativity of their design. They were commended on their unique arm design, for being the only team to bring a working drone propulsion mechanism, and for their use of lighting on the robot.

Other commendations:

Two of the other teams nominated VNATION for ‘Gracious Professionalism’ for helping them with their robots. Members of VNATION helped other teams to make improvements and made them feel supported on the day, and this was noted by the teams who nominated them!

MASSIVE thanks to every one of you who came down to show support and wished them good luck. They cherished the card and their faces lit up every time a member of staff came in to watch, which no doubt contributed to their energy levels and success.

Next steps:

They were the official ‘Judges’ Choice’ team to go through to the National Championship at the University of Cambridge on June 21st! Can VNATION bring home a national award two years running?! Let’s make it happen!

They are buzzing for the Championships now.