The MSMS Robotics Club Team B (62449B) earned the Judge’s Award for Excellence, the highest honor in the VEX V5 Challenge, at the 2025 Mississippi VEX Robotics State Championship in Flowood on Feb. 26.

MSMS engineering teacher and robotics coach Fatimaezzahra Labaaj said the competition went well at Flowood, despite many setbacks, one being the sudden location change.

“This year it was different [because] we did it [with the Mississippi Air National Guard],” Labaaj said. “They offered to do it this year. It was good, but since it’s the first edition where they changed location, there were a lot of issues … a lot of robots were damaged because of the flooring system … and they had bad connection during the day so they couldn’t update the score on time.

In addition, Labaaj said one particularly frustrating problem was the lack of necessary parts for building the robots, with the delays coming mostly from VEX, the company that makes the parts the robotics teams need to build and practice with.

“VEX didn’t have all the parts available on time. We didn’t get the [game] field until mid-semester because it was out of stock, and the whole school was looking for the field,” Labaaj said.

Senior Jonathan Stancill, one of Team B’s captains, said the situation with VEX was particularly bad this year.

“The practice field we use, the smaller parts for building the [robot were] always on backorder,” Stancil said. “We were probably a month later getting started than we were hoping.”

Labaaj said there was also infighting among the teams.

“There are sometimes [where] a lot of stress arise, especially in the competition,” Labaaj said. “I can see how the teams are talking with each other. It’s not like they are friends in the lab [but] the atmosphere is different, a lot changes.”

Despite all of these difficulties, Labaaj said she is satisfied with the turnout of the tournament.

“[The team] did really well,” Labaaj said. “At the beginning they won five or four [matches], and then [in] the last two [matches], they lost mainly because of the flooring issue. It was really good.”

Senior Yash Malhotra, the second Team B captain, said just being able to compete in the competition was something to be thankful for.

“We had a long season, and so being able to even appear was beneficial. If anything, it was rewarding to be able to go to the competition and be able to compete at the state tournament,” Malhotra said. “At the end, you can only do the best you can, and whatever happens, happens. We won a lot of games, and we’re very happy about that. It was a good experience.”