Greetings Teams,

It's been an exciting couple of weeks since the last update. More than 200 teams played in 11 different events the past two weeks (in 8 different US states and in Brazil), with many new teams qualifying for the 2010 VEX Robotics World Championship April 22-24 in Dallas, Texas. This next week will see almost 250 teams compete in 7 more events spanning the globe, including the first ever VEX competition in Japan, the Inaugural VEX All-Star Challenge at Disney World, the first VEX Robotics competition in Australia and competitions in 4 additional states (Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana and Massachusetts).

A special note: The Disney All-Star Challenge event is now going to be web cast on Friday and Saturday – the link to the webcast may be found on the home page at RobotEvents.com.

Now over 1800 Teams and 150 Events

Since our last update over 200 new teams have registered, raising the total number of teams this season to over 1800. It looks like VEX may become the first High School and Middle School Robotics Competition to ever reach 2000 teams! Almost 30 competitions have already taken place, and the feedback has been fantastic. With well over 100 events still to come, the rest of the season should be incredible. Congratulations to all the dedicated event partners, hosts and volunteers who have run such great tournaments and provided so many opportunities for teams and schools to participate. While many of the upcoming events still have space available, 12 have already filled up this season and many more are getting close – so be sure to go online and get your teams registered for any upcoming events you know you want to participate in while there are still spots available.

Event Results and Qualifying Information

Results of events are now being displayed on the Robotevents.com event pages for each tournament. Many of the results of recent events are already posted and the rest should be up soon. Teams that have won tournaments or been finalists, have come in 1st or 2nd place in Skills Challenges or won the Excellence Award have qualified for the 2010 VEX World Championship and/or the 2010 CREATE Foundation Championship of the Americas. You can check the qualifying criteria and register for each tournament on their specific event pages on RobotEvents.com.

Regional College Challenge Events Announced

While we initially expected the College Challenge to be a World Championship only tournament this season, a number of universities have asked to host events so many schools can compete regionally and hopefully travel less. We’re happy to announce that College Challenge events have been scheduled in California, Maryland, Massachusetts and Texas.

Online Challenges Coming Soon

Many teams have been asking if the new online challenges for this season will be announced soon, and the answer is yes. We expected to launch the new challenges in about two weeks, but we can share with you what some of the returning and new categories of challenges will be for those who want to start to prepare. This year we will again have Promotional Video and Game Animation Challenges along with a new twist to the Product Design Challenge in partnership with the FUTURE Foundation based on creating robots designed to assist with disabilities. Two completely new online challenges will be a new Computer Animated Design Challenge and a new Web Site Design Challenge. More details will be announced and posted online soon.

Best of luck to all the teams competing this week – have a great time!

Sincerely,