2941H

Mecha Squad

We are 2941H Mecha squad from Otumoetai college in Tauranga, New Zealand. Together our team strives for excellence and are constantly looking for more ways to innovate, learn and improve. Combined, our team has 19 years of experience in VEX Robotics and lots of other experience in the STEM field. This year we have a very well balanced and strong team, Our team leader Tom with 7 years of experience, Indie and William with 4 years of experience, Finn with 2 and Rosa with 1. This World's qualification is a product of years of hard work, experience, innovation and dedication. Together year after year we have pushed the boundaries of our abilities and this year we are finally one of New Zealand’s best.

We Qualified for the World Championships

The 2026 VEX Robotics World Championship represents the pinnacle of the competitive robotics calendar for teams, bringing together thousands of the world's top qualifying students in St. Louis, Missouri, USA at the America's Center Convention Complex. Taking place the 21st-24th April, this multi-day event showcases the best student-designed robots from over 60 countries, making it one of the largest secondary school robotics competitions. Teams competing at Worlds have earned their place through strong performances at local, regional, and national championships throughout the season.

Qualifying for the World Championship is a prestigious achievement that recognizes months of dedication, innovation, and competitive excellence. For students, it represents the highlight of their robotics career, and a chance to test their skills against the very best in the world before potentially transitioning to university studies or careers. The event celebrates not just winning but also design excellence, sportsmanship, and strategy.

What is vex robotics?

The VEX V5 Robotics Competition (VRC) is one of the world's largest and most prestigious competitive robotics programs for secondary schools. VRC engages millions of students across 60+ countries, making it a truly global STEM initiative. The competition challenges student teams to design, build, program, and drive robots to compete in annual game challenges.

Each VEX Robotics season features a unique game challenge that is revealed globally at the start of the competition year. Matches are played on a 12-foot by 12-foot field, with two alliances (red and blue) competing against each other, each alliance consisting of two teams working collaboratively. Every match is divided into two distinct periods: a 15-second autonomous period where robots operate entirely on pre-programmed code without any driver input, followed by a 1-minute 45-second driver-controlled period where students operate their robots using handheld controllers. Points are scored through various game-specific tasks, which typically involve manipulating game objects such as balls, rings, cubes, or other elements into goals, zones, or stacking configurations. Additional points can be earned through autonomous bonuses and end-game objectives. Robots must adhere to strict size constraints (typically an 18-inch cube at the start of the match) and can only be built using official VEX V5 components.

About Us

There are about 14,300 VEX robotics teams globally and for each and every one of them the dream is to compete at the World Championship one day. I competed for 7 years, played over 300 matches, competed with 17 different teammates, all to chase the dream of qualifying for Worlds. In 2019 I started at the bottom of the ladder and every year, I improved bit by bit. In 2022, the core of 2941H formed as we know it today. Over those four years together, we’ve seen the highs and lows: we’ve won trophies and watched tournaments slip through our hands. We took risks in our designs and strategies when other teams wouldn't. Through innovation and sheer determination, we are now one of the top teams in New Zealand and have been for the last 2 years. Unfortunately I am no longer the 11 year old boy I once was and won't be able to go because of university commitments making 2026 nationals my final destination in my career. I've had the honour to lead this team to the top and to the Worlds qualification, to be able to watch them go and complete the dream I’ve chased for so long means more than anything to me.

Worlds is an opportunity to compete and build connections at one of the highest levels of engineering available for high school students. This has been a goal for 5 years and I have put in tens of thousands of hours. This event is the recognition for that work, along with an opportunity to travel with good friends and teammates to an event we all share a deep interest in. I also wish to compete to give to Tom, who chose me to form his team when I was a year 9 and has been a mentor and good friend for 5 years, his goal to have 2941H compete at the highest level.

In engineering there's a term called plastic deformation, where a material is permanently deformed after being stretched past it's limits. Worlds would give me the chance to stretch myself past my limits, and would, regardless of the outcome, leave permanent, positive, changes. There's rarely a case where I can test my abilities to the level that this competition provides. I am very grateful to take part in this exciting opportunity.

Despite only doing VEX for one year, it changed my passions and my hopes for the future of not only myself, but the future of the world for all young people. I took a chance, and agreed to be the programmer for 2941H, and I’m forever grateful for that opportunity. To me, Worlds means a chance to prove ourselves and our hard work; the 30 hour weeks we put in, the repetitive filing and sanding, but most importantly, the ideas and innovation that were created. It helped foster a new way of thinking, and a practical aspect to tasks that I hadn’t yet experienced. I met so many like-minded people who helped me grow my skills and shared their love for technology with me. My only regret is not stepping out of my shell and joining robotics earlier. Because of me joining so late, I can’t attend Worlds due to University commitments, but the fact I had the chance to experience it, especially as a woman in STEM, means so much to me, and I will always have a love of robotics thanks to VEX.

I’ve been doing Vex for four years and going to the world championship in the US has been my ultimate and personal goal. Already from my years in Vex I've learned so much in areas such as design, teamwork, and other life skills I will carry with me in my future career. This opportunity is once in a lifetime and it came at the perfect time heading into my final year of vex robotics. The chance to attend worlds is the culmination of everything I’ve worked for, and this is the moment I can finally fulfill my goal of proving my skill to the world.

Achievements

This season we had our best season yet and achieved several major milestones. Some of our proudest ones are:

Qualifying for the World Championship
Winning the tournament finalist and the 1st judges award
Ending the New Zealand season with a 38 win 10 loss record for a 79.2% winrate
Reaching the finals at all 4 of the tournaments we attended and winning 2 of them

Sponsor Us!

Getting a team of students from Tauranga to St. Louis is expensive. The cost is approximately $7000 NZD a student including a $1800 USD registration. Every dollar brings these students one step closer to the world stage.

Donations will go directly to helping students fundraise and pay for:

Return flights from New Zealand to St. Louis
Official tournament accommodation
Registration and competition entry fees
Robot equipment costs

Design Process

Our Engineering Notebook

VEX robotics follows a very similar design process to engineering applications and any competitive event. Following the trend of wide iterations and creative design in the early season, where teams around the world work together to find mechanisms and strategies that are effective. Then flowing into mid-seasons, where general principles are defined but applications are widely varied. Then, finally, into the late season, where there are defined “metas” and robot designs, and the focus shifts towards optimisation and finding new mechanisms that give the slightest edge. VEX has a unique community of sharing knowledge and robots functionality to the whole world in order to further the competitions as a whole, if you were to google vex robotics explanation you'd be able to find building guides as well as breakdowns of peoples late season bots.

Our team understands this and follows a multi design cycle philosophy, we will typically go through three to four full design cycles a year with each usually consisting of fully CADing the robot on fusion 360, and then a full rebuild. This process is documented in our engineering notebook which consists of all plans and ideas that we have throughout the season along with building progression and process.

About Oats Robotics

Deon is the incredibly devoted teacher behind Oats Robotics. He started it in 2009 and none of this would have been possible without him. He gives up his free time every Saturday to run the club as a volunteer - showing extraordinary support and dedication. Under Deon an Oats team came first at Worlds in 2013.

Fritha is the club's manager, who does all the admin and organization. She arranges tournaments, manages paperwork, and coordinates with the school. Without Fritha, things would quickly fall apart.

Brian provides technical support, manages the club’s parts and resources, drives us to tournaments, and supports us while we are there. Without him we wouldn’t have been able to get to nationals to compete!