I don't think I would be able to make it to compete with a Vex robot on the 13th, but I'm definitely building a 1/3 scale robot of this year's game!
My father and I are building a 1/3 scale version of the complete rack (complete with mini-chains, so all the spider legs move!) at our house as we speak, which will be completed by Wednesday. We also plan to bring this 1/3 scale rack into our Gus meetings, so we can let all of the students prototype all their own ideas with our Vex kits, especially since we plan to use CNC sheet metal parts for many of the mechanisms/frame on our robot this year.