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5. Vex the Equalizer

Vex the Equalizer My Vex career began in 2011 when my Boy Scout troop formed a team. In scouts, it is said that in football it is only the best 11 that play and in baseball it is the best 9. While in basketball, it is only the best five that play. But in scouting, everyone can do everything. So, even though I was just an 11 year old sixth grader, I became an integral member of our Vex robotics team competing in the high school division of Gateway. We were a small team—a sophomore and two sixth graders. But, in just our second tournament, we won the Excellence Award. We qualified for the Vex Robotics World Championships in Anaheim, California. So, in April, 2012, our team travelled to Anaheim. There in the high school pits I was dwarfed by the overwhelming number of older teams. It was a bit intimidating to me. But it was only intimidating until we took the robot to the competition field. On the field, every robot was just 18”x18’x18”. Neither my age nor size mattered. Nothing matters in Vex but performance. All other things are equal. In our first qualifying match, our match partner hung up on the center goal’s bars 5 seconds into the match. We played 1 vs. 2 for the remainder of the match. We may have lost but we lost by only one point. It was great. Walking away, we knew we had done well against great odds.