The Vietnam Robocon 2008 final will be held from June 3-8 at the Military Zone 7 Sports House in Tan Binh District. Robot fans can follow the action live on VTV2.

Robocon team of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology

This year, the best 32 teams have been chosen from 300 teams divided into eight groups to participate in a round robin format.

The top two teams in each group will enter the round of 16.

After 12 competitions, the Group A and B winners are EDR G3T from Ha Noi University of Industry, SQ-PLV from the Information Technology Commanding Officers School (Group A); E-HT 7 from Da Nang University of Technology, FASO1 from the Military Technology Institute (Group B).

None of them completely won the Govinda competition on the first match day. The name refers to the mythological Lord Krishna and the festival of Dahi-Handi in northern India.

A VND40 million (US$2,500) first prize and US$1,000 goes to the champion, who will represent Viet Nam at Asia-Pacific Robocon 2008 in Pune, India in August, according to the organizing board.

The second price is VND25 million (US$1,500) and the third prize is VND15 million (US$920). There are also prizes for best idea, best technique, best style, best hand-controlled robot and best automatic robot.