ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

The winner of yesterdays's Central European FIRST LEGO League Finals is (as in 2005) the team avaloq from Switzerland, which will go to the World Finals at St. Louis (USA) in April. Congratulations! The first eight teams will also take part at the FLL Open European Championship at Delft (Netherlands) in June.

For all our Readers that are located somewhere in Central Europe, the Central European Finals for the FIRST LEGO League that take place today in World's largest computer museum, the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum in Paderborn (Germany), might be a worthwhile event to visit. More than twenty teams from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czechy, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland will compete for the first places that will allow them to take part at the FLL World Finals in April in St. Louis. For those who can't be at place there today, a live stream is available from the event starting with the Robot competition at 12.30 CET.

Last weekend, the RobotChallenge 2010 took place in Vienna, allegedly Euope's largest robot challenge event, in connection with the Robot Sumo European Championship 2010. MCP Mike Brandl made European Champion in the category "Humanoid Robot Sumo" with a NXT Robot called Evil Bill (while Bill's brother Evil Ted made Third): Two more NXT robots by Mike made Second and Fourth in the Humanoid Robot Sprint challenge. Hail Mike, European Humanoid Robot Sumo King! Have a look at his elaborate web site on the event - in German, though, but there are a lot of pictures and movies.

If you are living in Europe (or are going to visit it), mark end of June red in your calender: on 27th and 28th of June, Fana'Briques will take place again in Rosheim in the Alsace (France). It's one of the biggest LEGO® events in Central Europe; this year, it will be centered around the topic "LEGO® basketball". Everyone who has been there already (including me), will certainly come back. Who hasn't so far: it's absolutely worthwhile - nice athmosphere, tremendeous surroundings, interesting people, heaps of fascinating LEGO® stuff. By the way: for exhibitors, registration is open now.

As posted last week, the annual Fana'Briques 2008 took place in Rosheim (Alsace, France) on the weekend gone-by. It was a great success, with an European record for the number of modules in a GBC (63 in a line) and a LEGO® TGV speed world record (more than 900 km/h equivalent speed). Here's a little movie that I made up from some impressions from the setup phase on Saturday morning: Some more images can be found in the web here and here .

All of you who are near to the Alsace in France: do not forget to attend the Fana'Briques 2008 event that will take place in Rosheim tomorrow and on Sunday (28th and 29th of June). Also the third run of Fana'Briques will be focused on the topic LEGO® in Locomotion : there will be an attempt for a speed world record with a LEGO® bullet train (TGV/ICE), a large DCC controlled roadway system, Mini- and Maxifigs at the Olympic Games and a building challenge for children as well as a particularly large Great Ball Contraption (targeting the size of 100 modules).

A Date to prebook: also this year the Fana' Briques will take place in Rosheim (Alsace, France) , this time on the 28 th and 29 th of June. To satisfy the increased crowd of visitors, this year the new location has changed to a place that offers an exhibition space of 1400 m 2 (double the size of last year's event). Again, also the third run of Fana'Briques Veranstaltung will be focused on the topic LEGO® in Locomotion : there will be an attempt for a speed world record with a LEGO® bullet train (TGV/ICE), a large DCC controlled roadway system, Mini- and Maxifigs at the Olympic Games and a building challenge for children as well as a particularly large Great Ball Contraption (targetting the size of 100 modules). Rosheim in the Alsace is always worth a sojourn - have a look at the Fana'Briques page and make a note for the weekend mentioned in your calendar.

The Central European FLL finals , taking place at Triberg, Black Forest (Germany) on last Saturday, has been a great experience! A lot of competent teams took part - the Alleskönner?! from the Ketteler-Realschule at Hopsten (Germany) finally made it to FLL Champion (and thus attendee of the FLL World Finals in April at Atlanta, USA). Congratulations! This is a movie that I have created from my own photos. Unfortunately, the rechargable battery of my camera gave up rather soon, so the greatest part of the teams and of the event can not be seen there. :-( Nevertheless: Enjoy!

For those who still are undecided what to do at the weekend next ensuing, a trip to the beautiful Black Forest in Germany might be even more worthwhile than it is anyway: at Triberg the Central European FIRST LEGO LEAGUE Finals for the actual Power Puzzle competition will take place on Saturday, the 1st of December. There, the best teams from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic will compete against each other and determine the attendees for the FLL World Finals at Atlanta, Georgia (USA) in April. As a special service, Education Highway from Austria will present the event as a Live Stream in the web . I'll be there also and bring back some nice images and videos.