Starting this post early since two of my teams already have invites to Worlds and there are a ton of Signature event winners out there.
The top question on everyone’s mind is “What’s it like going to VEX Worlds?”
Please don’t start dozens and dozens of new threads asking what worlds is like. Pile into this one.
Please don’t ask about the new game. We will ALL find out the last day of the VRC events and the last day of the VEXIQ events. Not before. Just wait. There are also dozens of threads about what the 2023-24 game will be, please don’t start another one.
So lets start here, what is Worlds like? This worlds will be the biggest ever VEX worlds. It’s grown across the years, but this year may be MAX SIZE.
Worlds is amazing.
#1 Don’t sit in your pit on your phone. There are teams from all over the US and from all over the world. Get a light colored shirt and a dark sharpie marker. Get a team from every country/state to sign your shirt. Create some permanent memories you can take home.
#2 Worlds, while it’s about winning it isn’t about winning. It’s about the experience, the people you meet the things you see and do. Make the most of that experience. Organize pickup games on the practice fields. Talk to your alliance partners in line. Wander around meeting new people.
#3 Make a button that says “I’m xxxx on the Vexforum”. Here is your chance to meet a forum person and maybe there are people looking for you. Make it easy for them to find you. Maybe a second button with a good picture of your robot so people remember you AND your robot.
#4 Talk to teams about their designs their builds. Nobody is going to duplicate a robot in two days, teams will show off what they’ve done. For lots and lots of teams this is their last worlds, they are seniors. Here is your chance to learn from (or teach someone) cool tricks. Take notes, pictures if they let you. Let them show off their cool stuff. Show them your great design ideas. This is where the sharing is the best. You are at the pinnacle sharing how you got to the top. Bask in the coolness of the ideas you are deluged with.
#5 Have fun, remember, across the entire program (VRC, VIQ, VEXU, drones), only 11 teams will be World Champions. Odds are in your favor to not be one of them. Don’t ruin your experience by having a win or die expectation of being a Champion. Have an expectation that you competed with (VIQ) and against (VRC) with the best in the world. Learning from and with them is the greatest experience possible.
#6 Thank all of the RECF staff, the referees and the volunteers that make this possible. They all put thousands of hours in, make sure they know that you appreciate it. Which has a flip side, when something goes wrong, it’s not going to be the worst thing that happens in your life, push past it, keep your worlds experience positive.
#7 Make new friends, collect info from them, give them yours. This is a small community, your paths will cross again and again. It’s always great to have the network connections to use later on in life. Multiple years after Worlds in Disney Florida, I still talk to people that I met there.
I’ve had roboteers come back from Worlds and the key thing they all say is " I’ts not like going to a show, it’s like being the show."
#8 And lastly when you come back from Worlds, teach your sister teams and next years teams how cool, great, exciting it was to go to Worlds. Transfer your energy that last day of Worlds to them so they have the desire to be the Greatest Robotics Team in the world (oh and yea, all those cool build / programming things? Teach them to your teams too, they are going to need them).
Good luck at Worlds 2023. Congrats on making it!!
