With the release of the official WRO International rules for 2023 we have started our preparations for this season's South African events. We hope all of our South African WRO teams and coaches are excited and ready for this season's challenge and we as organisers can't wait to see all of the incredible solutions from around the country.
The theme for this season's challenge is "Connecting the World" and has been developed by the host country Panama. With the release of the official international rules there have been some considerable changes made to the WRO competition which we would like to draw notice to. We have split the sections into WRO International changes and WRO South Africa changes:
WRO International Changes:
A new WRO Elements box (45819) has been released and is used with the old WRO Elements box (45811) to build the table elements in the Robo Mission category. For 2023, you will need a box of each per Robo Mission age group. Element boxes can be purchased from Hands on Technologies, the official LEGO Education provider for Southern Africa.
The building instructions for the Robo Mission category elements are now in documents separate to the Robo Mission age group rule sets.
The general rules for the Robo Mission category have been updated and include new rules to be aware of when preparing your teams.
WRO South Africa Changes:
We have renamed the WeDo/Spike Essential category to Rover In-House, for our teams using WeDo or Spike Essential robots. This is the category you will be entering but the platform is also open to use any other hardware from Bee-Bots to Micro-bit.
We have made the decision to not use ABS mats at our Provincial Competitions and the National Final. All official competition mats will be standardised 510gsm non-curl, PVC material with a matt finish. Official WRO mats can be purchased from Hands on Technologies, the official LEGO Education provider for Southern Africa.
We welcome the first official Eastern Cape Provincial competition and wish all the coaches and teams the best of luck with their preparations for this event.
Within the theme of "Connecting the World" we took the decision to update our WRO SA website to attempt to provide our South African teams and coaches with more information, updates and news from around the WRO world and will also host free WRO specific webinars each month from February 2023. More information on this to come!
We Wish all our South African teams and coaches the best of luck for the 2023 WRO Season and hope to see you at our Provincial events!
