[Karthik]

The 2013 VEX Robotics World Championship should be an amazing event. With over 700 teams in attendance from 24 countries, this event really feels like the "Olympic of Robotics'. There's even an Olympic style parade of nations during the Friday opening ceremonies! Also unique to VRC is the five division setup being used in the High School competition. This set up allows for smaller divisions, givings teams more matches and a more manageable scouting experience. Instead of having a tradition playoff between the division winners, the 5 division winners play off in a "round robin" format, where each division winner plays each other once. After these 10 matches, the top two ranked division winners play in a best 2 out of 3 final. Imagine how cool this would be for FRC?

VEX and the RECF are very thankful for the support received from the FRC community. Here's just a small sampling of the FRC teams who have team members volunteering at this event: 33, 78, 118, 188, 148, 177, 217, 254, 1114, 1241 1511, 1538, 2056, 2587, 3847. We also have some very familiar faces to the FRC community MCing at this event. JonDarr Bradshaw, Grant Cox, Eric Eckhart, Jack Kentfield and Jim Zondag, just to name a few.

If you have a chance in the next few days, you should really check out some of the event.

Information about the 2013 VRC World Championship and webcast links can be found at http://www.robotevents.com/championship/

Highlights of the 2013 VRC World Championship include:


Thursday, April 18, 1:30 PM Opening Ceremony
Friday, April 19, 8:30 AM Opening Ceremony & Parade of Nations
Friday, April 19, 5:30 PM VEX New Game & Product Unveiling (Yup, kickoff happens at World Championship!)

Saturday, April 20, 8:30 AM Opening Ceremony & Division Awards
Saturday, April 20, 4:00 PM Finals and Closing Ceremony
(All times listed are Pacific/California)


It's going to be an incredible event, try to check it out if you can!