My question is we are a first year team going to the worlds in anaheim. Is there anyone out there who has gone before that can offer some advice? Like what is the parade of nations and do we need to caryy anything, like a flag or robot? and how many of the kids can be in the parade? I have seen the FAQ about 1 team member but when I see videos from past events it seems the whole team is in it. The other question is do we need to pack up our pit every night? again the FAQ states some do and some don’t. Any advice or help on this event would be great. We want the kids to have a GREAT time. THANKS:)
Having gone to worlds the past two years, I can say that the parade of nations will not be in dire need of students. My team has never participated in the parade, instead we preferred merely to watch it, so i cannot comment on that question. As for packing up the bots, every night we stow our robots, computers, tools, etc. in the 20" wooden boxes that we use to transport them. We lock the boxes and leave them under our pit table. Although I have not heard any stories of people’s pits being messed with during the night, and the competitive robotics community is very gracious and safe, our team (and most others that I can recall) has thought that no harm can come from securing our pits each night.
Thanks for the info. I will be packing a box to lock it down then. Also are you going to worlds this year? and in which division, high school or middle school?
Our school will have two teams attending worlds this year, 1437x and 1437z, and both will be competing in the high school division. We are actually a SoCal team, so we wont be flying this year 
but if you guys are flying, I would highly recommend constructing some 20" cubic boxes from plywood. They are useful for checking in baggage at the airport (this has been our preferred transportation method in past years) and are also great for storing in the pits, and also using for bot transportation at local tournaments. Where are you guys from/ what team number are you?
We are also a southern ca team from the antelope valley team VEX JETS #4073a and we are a middle school Joe Walker Middle School. I am the teacher even though it shows jr member cause when I signed up I didn’t see where to check if I was jr or not. look forward to seeing you there.
Sorry to get off topic junior member means that you haven’t posted a ton it has nothing to do with age or role on vex team
oh ok…thanks for the clear up.
Oh I remember you guys, you were at Golden State last week. Congrats on qualifying and see you there!
Well in the parade of nations it is usually for 1 person per team but if there is only one team for a certain country, they allow the whole team or others to go with them so 1 person doesn’t have to walk by themselves. Since you are from the U.S. you don’t need to carry a robot or flag, I think they provide it or someone else will. Usually we pack up our pit and bring all our stuff back to the hotel to tighten stuff and fix it if needed, but usually no one would try to mess up your robot.
I wouldnt leave my robot there, especially if you have a competitive one, competitive ones get targeted on the field (people trying to break them) by bad sports, i wouldnt want to think what they would do to one they saw just sitting in the pits…
Also, take them home because you should charge batteries, tighten screws, replace motors etc back at the hotel to make sure you are prepared for the next day. You dont want to travel all the way to worlds to lose a game because a screw fell out or something…
Usually it’s okay to leave your stuff packed up in your pit (it’s best in boxes). That’s what we did last year and we had no battery problems or sabotage problems. To avoid screws falling out, we have intermittent tightening sessions, and we always have fresh batteries ready (plus each morning we check all of the batteries to know which ones are good).
I think last year you could wave your country’s flag during the parade of nations.
VEX World Championship Opening Ceremony 2011 - YouTube here is what it looked like
Ok I guess that makes sense.
We went last year
Vex would only like the team captains to represent the teams
As far as leaving pits we left ours but one thing TAKE ELECTRONICS OR EXPENSIVE STUFF also teams aren’t allowed after the venue closes
lol you guys were outside
i didnt go to worlds last year but was there the 2 years before that and well it was inside
we always locked out robot in its box but everything else we just left out and never had a problem with theives or any else
On a related note re: flying with your robot on an earlier post, I thought this thread was relevant enough to do a little cross-forum-pollination.
Student’s Science Project Shuts Down Dallas Airport-TSA and air marshals detain 11 students and professors
Ha! Last year before Worlds, the luggage inspectors pulled us aside, opened our robot box, and asked, “What… is this thing?”
This is why we ship our robot … unfortunately, that means that we don’t get quite as much time to work on it as we’d like
For those of you that do not search the archives, this was my very first post on the forum (yes I’m a noisy poster 
)
https://vexforum.com/showpost.php?p=172687&postcount=1
It’s quite long but tells the story of last years experience, especially relevant to those of you who are shipping robots this year.