**UPDATE**

Several teams with students from Lake Washington School District (LWSD) competed at this year’s VEX Worlds Robotics competition. There were 820 teams that competed at the event in Dallas, Texas, held from May 5-7. A few teams from LWSD saw success at the world championships. Team DiscoBotZ was a division champion in the engineering division and ended up placing 12th in the world. Quantum Zima was a division champion in the Science Division while Exothermic Dusk won the Design Award in the same division. Exothermic Fusion was a finalist in the Arts Division. Team Orion won the Judges Award in the Research Division. 

Fifty teams from across the state traveled to Lake Washington High School for this year’s Washington State VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) Championship on March 13. Twelve spots were open to teams who wanted to move onto the next big competition. Out of those 12 spots, seven teams with LWSD students secured their position at the 2022 VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, Texas, May 5-7, 2022.

According to the VEX website, the VEX Robotics World Championship brings together the top VEX IQ Challenge, VEX Robotics Competition and VEX U teams from around the globe to celebrate their accomplishments and participate to be crowned champions. VRC High School teams compete in the exciting 2021-2022 game, Tipping Point, to earn a spot at this prestigious event.

Also from the website, the VEX Robotics Competition is the largest and fastest growing middle school and high school robotics program globally. Each year, an exciting engineering challenge is presented in the form of a game. Students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors, build innovative robots and compete year-round. In addition to learning valuable engineering skills, students gain life skills such as teamwork, perseverance, communication, collaboration, project management, and critical thinking. The VEX Robotics Competition prepares students to become future innovators with 95% of participants reporting an increased interest in STEM subject areas and pursuing STEM-related careers.

Below is a list of the teams with LWSD students on them that are headed to the world championships. If you have information on a team with LWSD students who is also moving on, please email communications@lwsd.org and let us know. 

• Tournament Champions and Judges Award: 98052A – Orion
   
• Design Award: 371T – Exothermic Dusk
   
• Innovate Award: 10C – Exothermic Creation
   
• Build Award: 10B – Exothermic Blaze
   
• Create Award: 917Z – Quantum Zima
   
• Amaze Award: 322A – Synergy Robotics
   
• Think Award: 4477U – DiscoBotz
   
• Finalist arts division: 10F - Exothermic Fusion

Updated 6/1/2022