Asotin Robotics Team Earns Spot in Vex Robotics World Championship | Local

ASOTIN – Asotin Robotics has secured a spot in the highly anticipated VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, TX, April 25th-27th, following their performance at the state level.

This year, Asotin Robotics showcased the talents of five dedicated students who exhibited commitment and ingenuity throughout their year-long season. The team comprised three sophomores – Shawn Hills, Colin Weber, and Jonah Ashby – alongside two eighth graders, Awa Mbodji and Gavin Hinkley.

Their journey to success has been marked by numerous accolades, including:

• Ignite Tournament 1, Kirkland, WA: 2v2 Champion and Amaze Award (Best Offensive Bot)
• Ignite Tournament 2, Kirkland WA: 2v2 Champion
• Clarkston High School 1: Excellence Award (Overall Winner) and Skills Champion (Solo Skills)
• Ellensburg Tournament: Excellence Award
• Bellingham Tournament: Judges Award
• Clarkston Tournament 2: Excellence Award, 2v2 Champion, Skills Champion
• VEX Washington State Championship: Build Award (Best Build/Design)

The VEX Worlds Championship stands as the largest robotics tournament in the world, hosting 3,600 teams from 50 countries, representing about 5% of the 70,000 VEX teams globally. While most tournaments the students have attended featured around 60 teams, at Worlds, their division will boast a staggering 800 teams. Asotin has ranked as high as 31st in the world throughout the course of this season. In Dallas, Asotin will play at least 10 matches across 3 days of tournament play.

The team is funded primarily by grants, but the students reached out to the community to help sponsor their post-season success. Coach Tim Weber expressed his gratitude to the team’s major sponsors, stating, “We are immensely grateful for the generous support of our major business sponsors, including the Nez Perce Local Education Project Fund, Asotin Boosters, Hancock Diesel Repair, Phoenix Radiology, Rogers Motors, Cooper Creek Forestry Management & Excavation, Granite Concepts, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Asotin Lions, Dan Anderson Construction, Asotin-Anatone Education Association, Holiday Inn, Fisher Systems, DeAtley Crushing, C & B Music & Vending, and the Clarkston Eagles. Their contributions have played a pivotal role in our journey to success, and we are honored to represent them at the World Championship.”

Reflecting on their season, team captain Shawn Hills shared, “The thing I am most proud about is winning the Build Award at the Washington State Competition. We built 3 robots this year and this one is ready for Worlds.” Each team builds a unique robot to score oddly shaped soccer, called triballs, in a game called ‘Over Under’. “Our robot can shoot triballs across the field to our alliance mates or score them quickly 1 at a time by ourselves.”

Weber added, “This is only the 2nd time an Eastern Washington team has qualified for Worlds since the competitions began in 2007.” Previous Asotin graduates qualified in 2022. “What I really enjoy about this group is that when they aren’t building their own robots, they help put on youth robotics camps so kids as young as 3rd grade get a unique experience building and programming their own robot.”