As the afterglow of the 2025 VEX World Championship faded with our team finishing an impressive 15th out of 84 teams in the Engineering Division, we returned home with jet fuel in our backpacks - ready to ignite the 2026 VEX IQ season! Armed with the lessons we learned last year, we prepared to face a formidable new challenge: Mix & Match.

In this game, robots must complete two main objectives:

1) Build stacks using pins and beams

2) Place those stacks into goals

We asked ourselves: What kind of robot could replicate a waiter at a revolving sushi restaurant—carrying stacks upon stacks of plates? The answer: Huey Bot!

To our delight, the design worked! At our first tournament, Legendary Huey helped us earn Teamwork 2nd Place, Robot Skills 2nd Place, and the Inspire Award.

As the season progressed and other teams’ robots transformed into highly efficient stacking machines, we kept improving too. Tournament after tournament, our team continued to place—earning the Think Award, Innovate Award, and the prestigious Excellence Award, along with Teamwork Champion and Robot Skills Champion titles.

Because of these strong performances, our team finished 4th in Elementary Robot Skills in Hawaii and has been invited to compete at the 2026 VEX World Championship in St. Louis, Missouri, from April 28–30!

But every great season brings new evolution. We eventually had to retire our beloved Legendary Huey to make way for a powerful new machine: Banana, our 180° stacking bot. Not only can it stack pins efficiently, it can also finish the stack with a “cherry on top”—a beam!

With Banana ready for action, we are excited to represent Hawaii once again on the world stage.

Will you support Banana in this final championship match?

Your donations will help fund our journey to the World Championship:

• Tournament Registration – $1,800

• Student Travel – $3,600 ($600 × 6 students)

• Lodging – $3,420 (3 days)

Your support is more than a donation—it is an investment in the skills, character, teamwork, and lifelong friendships we build through robotics. We are proud to represent Hawaii and share the Spirit of Aloha with teams from around the world.

Mahalo for your kōkua!

— Juicy Musubis & Banana

To learn more about Vex Worlds:

https://recf.org/vex-robotics-world-championship/

Vex Robotics World Championship Elementary Roster: https://www.robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-iq-competition/RE-VIQRC-26-4029.html#teams

Watch us compete!

https://www.vexworlds.tv/#/channels/forwjofkekkjndq5gdps