The 2011 New Zealand National Vex Robotics Competition was held over 4th – 6th March. It was a fantastic weekend in which 48 teams battled it out in a game called “Round Up”. There were some amazing robot designs and we enjoyed meeting and competing with teams from all around New Zealand. In particular we were inspired by the courage and tenacity of our Christchurch Teams who in spite of the hurdles found a way to get to Auckland to compete. You are real heroes!

As always the standard of robot design and build was high among our NZ teams, so the battle for dominance in the games was intense. Each team played 13 qualifying matches, and then the Finals games were played over best of 3 matches in each Quarter, Semi and Finals.
Five of the six teams battling in the NZ Finals are already qualified for the World Championship in Florida in April, so as you can imagine the robots were formidable machines driven by battle seasoned, passionate teams. The stakes were high and the pressure was immense!

We were so delighted and exhilarated to win the National Tournament Championship in an Alliance with two of our Free Range Teams and a team from Pinehurst School. This is the third year that the Free Range Robotics has won the NZ National Championship!

We hope to represent New Zealand at the Vex Robotics World Championship in Florida, April 14th – 16th. We are the current World Champions so it would be fantastic if we can defend and retain that title for NZ.

If you would like to contribute to the teams fundraising efforts please click here

Thanks from us all at Free Range Robotics!