East Texas A&M University's Lion Pride Robotics Club came up just short of a shot at a world title, finishing as runner-up in the VEX U Research Division at the 2026 VEX Robotics World Championship in St. Louis, Mo., on Monday, April 27.

The team, which consists of Dharsan Raviselvam, Zach Pittman, Bradyn Hamm and Vaden Wood, competed in the tournament for the first time. VEX U Worlds featured more than 100 teams from across the world at America's Center in the Gateway City. Lion Pride Robotics qualified for VEX Worlds after winning the Texas VEX University Robotics Competition in late February. The team entered the event last weekend as the No. 1-ranked college/university team in Texas and ranked in the top 10 in the U.S. standings and the top 20 in the world.

VEX Robotics is a robotics platform intended for students from elementary school through college to make robotics and STEM education more accessible worldwide. A subsidiary of Greenville, Texas' Innovation First International, the VEX Robotics Design System is the world's leading classroom robotics platform.

VEX Robotics competitions are played in a specific “game” unique to each academic year. The game for 2025-26 was “Push Back,” which saw two teams, or “alliances”–consisting of two robots each–attempting to reach a higher score than the other by scoring blocks in goals, controlling zones within goals, clearing loaders and parking in defined zones at the end of the match.

In VEX U competitions, each match consists of a 30-second autonomous period, during which the robots move and act only on sensor inputs and preprogrammed commands, and a 1-minute and 30-second driver control period, during which team members pilot the robots. The matches are quick, fierce and full of opportunities for unique and varied strategy.

At VEX U Worlds in St. Louis, the 120 qualified teams were randomly placed in three divisions: Research, Design and Opportunity. Lion Pride Robotics, designated “Team ETAMU” and placed in the Research Division, had a dominant run through most of their qualifying matches, going 9-1-0 and losing only to Auburn University's AUBIE2 team. Following qualification matches, the top 16 teams were selected for the elimination round. ETAMU was seeded seventh out of the top 16 finishers.

In the elimination rounds, Lion Pride Robotics took down CSUNR from California State University, Northridge, UPSP1 from Paraguay's Spark Academy and RIT from the Rochester Institute of Technology on its way to the Research Division Finals, facing off against AUBIE2 in a rematch of the Lions' only defeat of the weekend.

In the best-of-three series, Lion Pride Robotics were victorious in game one before falling in the next two games, just missing out on the World Finals against the other division champions.

For the season, the Lions finished with an overall record of 30-5, with four of those losses coming against AUBIE2, who went on to win the World Championship on Monday.

Dr. Perry Moler, ETAMU associate professor and faculty advisor for Lion Pride Robotics, says that the team hopes to build on this success moving forward.

“Texas is already a hotbed for VEX robotics, and this result puts our name on the world stage,” Moler said. He added that the team will look toward “building consistency” in hopes of returning to Worlds next year.

For more info about Lion Pride Robotics, visit the team’s website.