Robo Rumble returns to the Hub City, featuring local, regional high school robotics teams

Robo Rumble returns to the Hub City, featuring local, regional high school robotics teams
48 teams to compete in 3rd Annual Hub City Robo Rumble

JACKSON, TENN. – The third annual Toyota Tennessee Hub City Robo Rumble is set for Saturday, Oct. 4 at Jackson State Community College (JSCC). This exciting event is free and open to the public.  It is scheduled for 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. with the competition portion taking place from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The VEX Robotics-sanctioned event is the flagship VEX competition for the Hub City, with 48-teams traveling from across the state and region to compete in the skills-based robotics tournament. Toyota Tennessee is serving as the title sponsor.

Teams will compete in a series of challenges, pushing their student-designed robots to their coding and mechanical limits. Throughout the tournament, teams will play the VEX Robotics High Stakes game on a 12×12 field. This game will test their ability to work together as an engineering team, overcoming design, programming, and building obstacles all while trying to develop a winning game strategy. Each team is also assessed on the quality and durability of their construction, ingenuity, and more, allowing teams to also earn Judged Awards in categories outside of the overall winner. The winners of this tournament will advance to the Tennessee State Championship held at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville in March 2026.

“What an honor it has been to be a part of establishing such a valuable tradition for our STEM community here in West TN and how exciting that JSCC understands the value of this specific type of education for the youth of our community,” said KaBao McCarver, event organizer with Jackson Area Robotics. “With all the tech advances happening in industry, particularly with the incorporation of robotic technologies, now more than ever, we have a responsibility to make sure we are preparing our youth to meet the challenges of our future. Jackson has a home for our most brilliant future engineers and innovators and events like this prove it.”

Jackson Area Robotics (JAR) is a local Robotics Club comprised of high school students from across West Tennessee and home of the current reigning VEX Robotics World Champion. In May of 2025, JAR sent a team to Dallas, Texas, to compete against 800 invited teams out of the 12,000+ high school teams in the world. The three day event represented over 60 countries, culminating in the crowning of Jackson Area Robotics, along with their alliance partner Double Play from Piedmont, CA, as the two team Champions of the World. The Hub City Robo Rumble, established in 2023, has grown into the premier kick off event of the VEX Robotics season in the state of Tennessee.

“JMCSS competitive robotics has seen exponential growth this year as the district has tripled the number of schools offering this opportunity,” said Dr. Molly Plyler, STEM & Computer Science Senior Advisor with the Jackson-Madison County Schools. “We are grateful for our partnership with JSCC and JAR that makes this tournament possible. This event will allow JMCSS teams to compete with teams from all over, exposing them to ingenuity and creativity on various levels.”

Sponsors for this year’s event include Toyota Tennessee as the title sponsor of the event, with supporting sponsors including Leaders Education Foundation, Tennessee Valley Robotics, JSCC Advanced Maintenance Technician Co-op, Jackson-Madison County School System, The Greater Jackson Chamber, Gerdau, TBDN, H&M Company, Inc., Toyota Boshoku Tennessee (TBTN), Tennalum, Marco’s Pizza, Pacific Manufacturing, and Twice the Ice.

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