Stacking sounds simple. This year, it isn’t.
The pins in this year’s robotics game, “Override,” are difficult to stack and easy to knock over. What appears to be a straightforward task turns into one of the hardest challenges Haverford’s robotics team will face this year.
In the game, teams use their robots to score points by moving and placing the pins into cylindrical scoring areas.
“This game is one of the more challenging ones that I remember,” Head Robotics Coach Mr. Adam Myers said. “It is a stacking game with objects that are difficult to stack, but easy to knock over.”
This year may bring a new game, but the teams’ goals remain certain. Since summer began, the four teams have been working to qualify for the 2027 VEX Robotics World Championship.
“Every year, the robotics team has the implied goal of getting drive-team groups to the World Championships,” Coach Myers said. “This year, there is a clear, explicit goal among four of the drive teams to qualify for the World Championships. Just as importantly, they are committing to the work needed to achieve that goal.”
“I think that [Override] encourages excellence in many areas, not just designing and building”
Steve Xie ’29
For Fifth Former Ebiel Febres and his team 169C, qualifying for Worlds has already meant hundreds of hours of preparation. They have spent at least 100 hours on their notebook—a journal documenting the status of their robotics progress—and even more time building and maintaining their robot.
“I think people don’t understand how much time has to go into robotics in order to be competitive,” Febres said. “Due to there being a split between matches and the notebook, it involves double the amount of time people would originally think. ”
For Fourth Former Steve Xie and Sixth Former Taha Obuz of 169R, this year’s game may seem simple at face value, but simple does not mean easy.
“I think that [Override] encourages excellence in many areas, not just designing and building,” Xie said. “That also makes design an underrated aspect of the game, with many teams leaning towards certain ‘meta’ [popular and effective] designs instead of properly weighing pros and cons.”
“[Mall of America] taught us that the only way to properly know how competitive our robot is is through competition,”
Ebiel febres ’28
At their latest tournament, hosted at Mall of America, the team competed against around a hundred twenty other robotics teams from around the world. The tournament revealed one of the team’s principal strengths: collaboration.
Fifth Former Theo Berkman said, “This season, more than any, we’ve been able to get everybody to find ways to contribute.”
On the other hand, the Mall of America tournament exposed areas where the team could improve.
“[Mall of America] taught us that the only way to properly know how competitive our robot is is through competition,” Febres said.
After the tournament, the team’s focus has shifted from simply qualifying for Worlds to understanding how to get there.
“I mostly want my team to get a better understanding of robotics and the competition in general, beyond just winning,” Berkman said. “This is not my team’s last year, so we still have room to grow and improve throughout this season and the next.”
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