The Lake Stevens Robotics Team is something that every student has heard about at school – their competitions have been broadcasted on the cafeteria TVs, so their successes have been no strangers to the hallways of LSHS. However, they won their last award in a competition about a side of robotics that is less known.

The Five Guys, consisting of seniors Andrew Deebach, Ryan Sobosky, Aiden Pyle, Jordan Conner and Skylar Baugher, won the Dell Technologies Robotics Team/Club Website Challenge Award. Unlike the usual competition of building robots to overcome an obstacle course, this challenge was judged on the effectiveness of a robotics team to design a website that promotes their program.

“I began creating our club’s website in late 2014 using WIX.com, a cloud-based web development platform,” senior Aiden Pyle said.

Ever since the creation of the website, Pyle has worked hard to continue to improve it.

“I have been constantly working on the website, updating and expanding it,” he added. The website now serves as a place for community members and fellow robotics members alike to learn more about the club and their activities.

Winning the World Award gave Five Guys a chance to compete in the 2017 VEX Robotics World Championship on April 19. While the boys are no strangers to winning (They’ve won the Club Website Challenge Award once before and have traveled to the World Championship twice.), their status as seniors has helped them realize the influence they have on future classes of robotics teams.

“For me, [winning as a senior] means we have a chance to show the other teams in our club that there is a possibility to go to the World Championship, not just for having a great enough robot to compete and try to be the best of the best,” said senior Andrew Deebach. “You can try to go through some other forms of competing, such as layouts [and] design.”

Deebach mentioned that sometimes as an underclassmen, there is pressure to win. “You feel that if you can’t get a certain award that you can’t make it, but you still have tons of time. You can get better and better as you go.”

Their previous experience at the VEX World Competition will provide them with a sense of familiarity. Being humble, they are not as focused on winning so much as just being grateful for the opportunity to compete again.

“It feels great knowing that not only do we get to go back again, but, especially in our last year, competing is special,” senior Ryan Sobosky added.

Click here to view the award-winning website and make sure to congratulate the Five Guys if you see them in the halls, as well as wish them luck at their upcoming competition!