The Germans love them some forklift racing, and why wouldn’t they? Forklifts are awesome. Racing is awesome. There’s no way it wouldn’t be awesome if you combine the two. This year’s competition was different, though. The Stapler Cup, named after the German word for forklift, dropped “German” from the name and officially turned it into a true world championship. Ultimately, it was the Belgians that came out on top this year, the Wall Street Journal reports.
That doesn’t mean the Germans didn’t make it a serious competition. The national team faced China in the first round and beat them easily, finishing the course a full minute ahead of the other team. That victory allowed them to move on to the semifinals with Belgium, the Netherlands and Slovakia. From there, though, it got a little complicated:
That’s when things got messy. Each team had to build a tower of three plastic exercise balls and drive it up the “hero ramp,” a metal platform that seesaws as the forklift approaches the finish line. All four teams lost control of the ball stack before completing the course, so the judges picked finalists based on how close they were to the end. That knocked Germany out, leaving the Belgians competing against the Slovakians for the title.
It was the underdog Belgian team that took home the top prize: gold medals, a trophy and a €1,000 shopping voucher.
OK, so the top prize isn’t going to make anybody rich. That €1,000 works out to about $1,050 at current exchange rates, which is almost enough to cover a family of five’s dinner at McDonald’s if you don’t use the app. Next year, the competition is expected to get even tougher, with Canada and the U.S. likely joining the other 11 countries that competed in 2024. Will we stick it to the Belgians? Will the Germans secure a world championship of their own? Only time will tell, but it also sounds like the competitors like the attention the sport is getting now that the Stapler Cup is more than a national event.
As Stapler Cup sports director Martin Stadtmüller told the WSJ, “I am looking forward to that. I want a real competition. Sometimes too much confidence can be dangerous.”
Automation at their day jobs, on the other hand, is reportedly a much bigger concern for the forklift racers. “Robots don’t get sick,” competitor Dan Zileanu told the WSJ. “Robots don’t need vacation.” Still, men’s individual winner Stefan Jennings reportedly believes companies will see the value in keeping humans around who can do more than follow a pre-programmed route, telling the paper, “If something tips over, or a truck is loaded and it doesn’t fit, the robot can’t do anything. It can only drive the route it’s programmed to drive. It can’t do anything extraordinary.”
H/T: The Drive