From local meets to the national stage at the UK Championship

The countdown to champs is on!

There’s officially only a month to go until 64 of our top teams come together to compete, showcase their achievements and make themselves proud. Meanwhile, our volunteers are training up to rock their roles and make our event one to remember. And over at HQ, we’ve got a couple of surprises up our sleeves, but more on that later… 

For now, team VNation is armed with plenty of advice for new and returning teams to the UK Championship to make sure they make the most of it.

Meet VNation, the future of inspiration

We are an inclusive team from Stoke-On-Trent consisting of Alex, Nicole, Cash, Fizza, Talya, Blake, Raven, Henry, Angela, Oscar, Misbah, Grace and Tesfa. 

This is our third year competing, and we have members from year 8 to year 13. We were proud to win the National Design Award in our first season. In our second season, we were in the West Midlands winning alliance and were West Midlands Innovate Award winners. This year, we were thrilled to be the West Midlands Inspire Award runners-up! For a few of our members, this is their third year being Youth Ambassadors, too.

At this year’s qualifying tournament, we had six Youth Ambassadors. Blake and Raven were photographers; Nicole, Alex and Cash were interviewers; and Fizza was a game announcer. We learned a lot of things at our qualifier, so we have improved a lot since then, both as Youth Ambassadors and as a team!

For example, our engineers have been working on including a colour sensor and suspension so that we can aim even higher than the Inspire Award second place that we achieved at our qualifying tournament. Our Youth Ambassadors have been practising their social skills and interacting with other teams.

It is very thrilling to see your team compete and to cheer them on, especially if you progress to champs, where the competition is even bigger and more intense!

Last year, champs went okay for us. Although we didn’t win a major award, we still won a social media award that gave us the funding to buy a pack that helped us with our robot. This year, we’re aiming to win an award and try our best to make ourselves proud, represent our school well, and learn from other teams. Our team is very excited, and we are all looking forward to champs.

So, what can you expect on the day? High energy, amazing teams and people who really want to help you! You’ll find every team is kind and reflects how the competition is truly more than robots.

Hey, teams! Bring your A-game

We have come very far in our journey since our first year, so this is our advice to new teams:

• Have fun in your sessions on your journey to champs. Winning isn’t everything – the journey and the friends you make along the way are the most important part
• Be brave and push yourselves outside your comfort zones
• Complete all the tasks you are given to the highest of your abilities.
• Update your portfolio as you go along and don’t leave it until the last minute
• Read through the game rules and awards criteria so you don’t get caught out on a detail. Use them to guide your team’s focus
• Measure your robot! Don’t be like us and have to rebuild part of it on the day. It’s added stress that you don’t need!
• Work together in your team. Don’t just have one person doing everything! Everyone has talents that can be used
• Socialise with other teams not only because other teams can give you help and ideas, but it’s also good to cooperate with other teams and help wherever you can
• Don’t be afraid to cheer loudly! Wave your team colours and cheer for your team and others. Some teams don’t know many people yet, so show every team a lot of love and support. Remember that any team could be your partner in a future match or final!
• Be gracious professionals, always!

Good luck at champs! Come and see VNation if you need anything at all!

Join us at the London Copper Box Arena for the STEM moment of the year – you won’t want to miss it! Spectators and special guests are welcome to join on 27 June.

See you there!