By Samantha Posa

On November 2, Robodox hosted its yearly Rumble in the Jungle competition at the Granada Hills Charter (GHC) campus. Thirty-six VEX Robotics teams from different schools and organizations traveled to GHC to compete for the opportunity to advance to the California Region 4 State Championship. Robodox’s VEX 599Z took home two awards for the night, the High School Excellence Award and a Tournament Finalist Award.

To compete, all teams and their robots played the popular VEX game called High Stakes. Four square playing fields were present in the large gym, two for practice and two for the actual competition rounds. Competing teams were stationed on each side of a single arena. Rings and mini towers were scattered in the middle of the playing field. Each team could control their original robot to maneuver around the field.

In the square arena, there are two positive and two negative corners. Rings and mobile goals are scattered throughout the arena. Positive corners double the points earned by placing rings on top of mobile goals, while negative corners take away points. To play, teams controlled their robots in attempts to stack as many rings as they could on the towers in each corner. The team with the most rings on the goals by the end of the timer would win the round, advancing to the next battle. 

The VEX team reigned victorious for seven rounds in a row, winning four in the qualifications round and three in the elimination rounds. They ended the night at the finals, receiving a Tournament Finalist Award, which sent them to the states. 

“At the beginning of the day, we were definitely nervous, especially knowing how much hard work we put into preparing for RITJ,” senior and VEX manager Mia Hoang said. “As we started playing more matches and doing well, we started having more fun and were super excited when we made it to the Finals. Although we were disappointed to lose in the Finals match, we were ecstatic to win the Excellence Award”. 

While not competing, Robodox’s First Robotics Competition (FRC) team was hard at work volunteering and supporting the VEX team. While under one name, FRC and VEX take on two different aspects of robotics. FRC focuses on designing and creating one large robot, with its competition season being in the spring semester. VEX centers around building many different robots, those of which are much smaller. Rumble in the Jungle is solely a VEX event, being the qualifiers for larger competitions such as the state championships. 

“Oftentimes, these teams work separately with little room or time to talk to one another,” junior Orielle Garcia said. “It was inspiring to see both teams come together to support the preparation and competition aspect of this event, bridging more communication between all team members. All members get to go hands-on in helping out in the event, and especially after seeing how much everybody else enjoyed it, all members got to feel more involved with our team as a whole.” 

The FRC division went all out in preparation for the event. The large gym was decorated with jungle-esque decorations, and a food stand at the entrance offered a wide variety of food options.

“We did a lot of planning”, junior Nathalye Mora said. “We made sure we got volunteers, got food donations, [and] that we had the material we needed.” 

After immense success at Rumble in the Jungle, the VEX team is set to compete at the California Region State Championship from March 14 to March 16, 2025, where they will face off against almost a hundred other teams in the journey for statewide victory. 

“Our ultimate goal for States this year is to qualify for the World Championships and to show all of SoCal not to underestimate 599Z”, Hoang said.