● Now forming teams · season 2026–27
Robot events that fit on a table.
A season of robot events for grades 6–12. Season One runs entirely on two folding tables — line following, a mini obstacle course, mini sumo, a maze, a drag race, freestyle — with a $49 robot. No gym to book, no arena to build, no field to buy. When your teams outgrow the table, the floor events are waiting.
● The marquee event · Zone Control
Six robots go in. One alliance owns the floor.
Zone Control is the biggest event on the slate and the one that feels most like a sport. Three glowing zones sit on the arena floor: hold one and you score every second you keep it, push the other team out and you score more. Two and a half minutes, everybody driving at once.
It is one of twelve. The others range from a taped sprint lane to a fully autonomous maze. See the whole library →
● The three roles
In Zone Control, every robot does a different job.
You can’t build the same robot three times — the rules won’t let you. Each one has its own weight class, its own speed limit and its own job, so three students get three completely different engineering problems in the same season.
The Scorer
Quick, light, and always where the points are. The Scorer’s job is to get to a zone first and stay in it.
- Highest speed cap on the field
- Gearing and battery management matter most
- Best robot to hand a student who loves driving
The Defender
Low, wide and immovable. The Defender shoves opponents out of zones and holds the line while the others score.
- Heaviest class, lowest speed cap
- Wedge shape and traction decide everything
- Where students learn about torque and grip
The Support
The only robot that can trigger the zone multiplier. Least brute force, most cleverness.
- Mid weight class
- Needs a working mechanism, not just a drivetrain
- The build for students who like inventing things
● Your season
From an empty box to a trophy in one school year.
You don’t need a shop class, a machine tool, or a coach who already knows robotics. If you can supervise a room and follow a build guide, you can run a team.
Build
Open the box, follow the guide, and get three robots driving. Most teams manage it in three or four afternoons.
Scrimmage
Tape out a zone in the gym and play. This is where students find out their wedge is too high and fix it themselves.
Compete
League events, three matches minimum per team, always. Nobody drives home after one bad match.
Championship
One championship, one entry fee, and it’s $150 — not a plane ticket and a hotel block.
● The kit
One box. Three robots. Nothing else to order.
No shopping list, no minimum order, no “also you’ll need…” The team kit has three complete robots and the tools to build them.
The robots are yours to modify. We publish the full CAD for the chassis, so if your school has a 3D printer your students can print spare parts, redesign a wedge, or invent a mechanism nobody has tried yet. The ceiling on your program is your imagination, not a purchase order.
Code it two ways. Drag-and-drop blocks for students who are new to programming, and real C++ for the ones who want to go further — on the same robot, in the same season. Nobody gets left behind and nobody gets bored.
Team Kit
Everything three students need- 3 complete robots — motors, wheels, electronics, chassis, all of it
- 3 game controllers so three students drive at once
- Batteries and a charger — rechargeable NiMH, the safe kind
- A real tool kit — drivers, strippers, cutters
- Spare parts sized for a full season of bumping
- Build guide and lesson plans, in English and Spanish
- Sensors included — so autonomous mode is something you can actually try
- Free CAD files for every printed part
● What students actually learn
It looks like a game. It teaches like a course.
Mechanical design
Wedges, gear ratios, weight distribution, traction. Students find out on the arena floor whether their idea worked.
Electronics
Wiring a drivetrain, reading a battery, tracing a fault. Real hands on real hardware.
Programming
Blocks or C++, driver control and autonomous routines, sensors that have to actually work under pressure.
Working as a crew
Three robots means three builders, three drivers, and a strategy that only works if they talk to each other.
For teachers: the curriculum maps to NGSS engineering design standards (MS-ETS1 and HS-ETS1) and CSTA computer science standards. A crosswalk document comes with the kit, so you can show your department exactly where the class time goes.
● Safety
Built so a principal says yes.
There are no spinning weapons in the school division. Robots push, wedge and lift — that’s it. It’s contact, not destruction, and it looks a lot more like sumo than like a demolition derby.
Every team completes a short safety module before the kit is opened. Every robot has a power switch reachable from outside, a visible power light, and a failsafe that stops it if the signal drops.
🔋 No lithium fire risk
We use rechargeable NiMH batteries, not the lithium packs that make facilities directors nervous. 24 volt ceiling across the whole league.
🛡️ No weapons at school
The school division bans spinning and active weapons outright. Clubs that want real combat can run a separate 1 lb division in an enclosed arena. See the Combat Division →
📝 Written rules, external standard
Our safety rules follow SPARC, the standard the wider robot-combat world already uses. Your district can read the source.
● Three ways in
Start on a table. Move to the floor when you’re ready.
The robot fits the event. A tabletop robot does line following and sumo on a desk; a floor robot does tug of war and ten-robot capture the flag in a gym. Start wherever your space and budget allow.
Micro
A robot the size of your hand that runs on two folding tables. Line sensors and an accelerometer included, driven from a phone, powered by four AA cells.
- All eight tabletop events
- No gym, no arena, no facilities request
- Ten of them for a class of 30 is $449
- Fits in a desk drawer
Solo
Four-wheel drive, about the weight of a bowling ball, built for events that need space and shove. Same controller and sensors as the Micro.
- Sprint, Trials, Endurance, Tug of War
- Joins alliances for the big team events
- Still goes on a purchasing card
- Runs on six AA cells
Team Kit
Three competition-ready floor robots, gamepads, a charger, real tools, a season of spares and the curriculum. What a team that wants the season title buys.
- Every event in the library
- Three robots, three student build leads
- Durable equipment, so an equipment budget can buy it
- Rechargeable packs and a charger included
Nothing is wasted when you move up. All three classes share the same controller, the same sensors and the same coding environment. A student who tunes a line follower on a $49 Micro already knows how to program a floor robot.
● What it costs
The whole price list.
Here is the whole price list. There is no software licence, no mandatory upgrade next season, and no separate fee per event — the kit is legal in all of them.
Worried about the money? Most robotics funding is already sitting in your district’s budget or in a state grant — you just have to know which pot to point at. We built a page that tells you, state by state. Find funding in your state →
Print a one-page proposal for your principal →
● Questions
The things everybody asks.
What’s the cheapest way to start?
One $49 Micro and a roll of tape, on a table you already have. That covers all seven Season One events including Line Follow and Mini Sumo. Buy two if you want students racing each other. There is no minimum order and no obligation to enter a season.
We’ve never done robotics. Can we still do this?
Yes — that’s who we built it for. The kit comes with a step-by-step build guide, and the robots go together with hand tools. Start with Sumo and Sprint, which need nothing but a roll of tape, and add harder events as your team gets stronger.
Do we have to enter every event?
No. Most teams enter two or three in their first season. A meet usually runs four to eight events and you pick which ones. Only teams chasing the All-Around title need to spread across three disciplines.
How many students does a team need?
Six is the sweet spot: three build leads and three drivers, though most teams swap those around. You can run a team with four, and a class of twenty-four works nicely as four teams.
Do students need to know how to code?
No. Driving works out of the box with a game controller — no programming required on day one. The autonomous events open up with drag-and-drop blocks when your students are ready, and there’s real C++ underneath for anyone who wants it.
How much time does this take?
Most teams meet once or twice a week. The build takes three or four sessions; after that it’s practice, tuning and getting ready for meets. It fits an after-school club or a class period equally well.
Is it dangerous?
Fourteen of the fifteen events have no weapons at all — robots push, drive and lift, and they weigh about as much as a bowling ball. Every team does a safety module before the kit is opened. Combat is the exception: it’s a club event that needs an enclosed arena and a trained adult.
Can we run our own meet?
Yes, and we’d like you to. Every rulebook, field plan and score sheet is free to download and free to modify. Run it, send us the results, and the placings count toward the season standings. Here’s how →
¿Hablan español?
Sí. El reglamento, la guía de construcción y el plan de estudios están en inglés y español desde el primer día — no como una traducción añadida después.
● Founding teams
Sixty spots for the first season.
Founding teams get the kit at $499, free registration, and a direct line to us while the rules are still being written. Twelve events are in the library and several are still in trial — if your students want something changed, this is the year they can actually change it.
Teachers & coaches
Tell us your school and how many students. We’ll send a quote your business office can process. Or grab the one-page proposal for your principal right now.
Students
Want a team at your school? Forward this page to the teacher most likely to say yes. That’s honestly how most teams start.
Local businesses
Sponsoring a team costs less than a recruiting ad and puts your name in front of the students who’ll be looking for work in four years.