From left, Wesley Hays, Nathan Smith, Noah Beckner and Jack Collins are all smiles with their state championship trophy.

Press Release

DALLAS — Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the VEX Robotics World Championships were conducted in a unique format Saturday, April 25, in Dallas, Texas.

The Robotics Education and Competition Foundation created VEX Virtual Worlds, a way to honor the 720 high school, 360 middle school and 92 college teams qualifying for worlds this year.

Team members were directed to use good social distancing and watch the virtual competition online.

All of the teams’ stats from their 15 highest match scores from the regular season were loaded into a match playing algorithm and the results were announced via a live feed throughout the day, turning VEX Worlds into a fantasy league of sorts. High school teams were split into eight divisions with 574C placed into the Engineering Division and 574D in the Arts Division.

574C (9-2-0) placed sixth in qualifications and made it to the quarterfinals in the Engineering Division. Team members are Evan Rassi, Taylor Fiedeke and Evan Brower.

574D (9-1-1) placed fifth in qualifications and went on to win the Arts Division championship, bringing home a trophy. From there, they advanced to the quarterfinals in the world championship rounds. Team members are Noah Beckner, Jack Collins, Wesley Hays and Nathan Smith. 574D is the first Wawasee team to win its division at worlds.

Special recognition goes to the Purdue BLRS SIGBots for winning overall in the Design Division and coming out on top as VEXU world champs. This team includes Iron Pride alumni and former state champs, Nick Murphy and Micah Rassi.

The new season has already begun with the announcement by the RECF of the greatest two minutes in robotics, the VEX 2020/2021 game “Change Up”! Wawasee Iron Pride Robotics teams have already started planning strategy and building bots. Visit www.ironpriderobotics.org to see a short video on the new challenge.

What is next: The next tournament is fall 2020. Date to be announced.

Evan Rassi (C) uses his super driving skills as teammates Taylor Fiedeke and Evan Brower watch during the Indiana State Championship.