Tahoma’s Robotics Club brought home first place hardware from the FIRST Robotics Competition March 23-25 in Seattle in spite of a small glitch.

The victory, according to freshman Katheleen Van Buren, was a combination of strong teamwork, effective communication with the other teams on their alliance as well as a lot of spirit.

The opening day of the competition was low key and allowed the team to set up the pits, make last-minute changes and hold practice matches. The matches involved three versus three basketball. During the matches basketball hoops are set up and the teams try to use their robots to score points.

Another way to score is through three specifically designed bridges in the center of the pit. A team scores 10 points if they are able to get their robot to balance itself on the bridge, 20 points if they can get two robots are the same time and 40 if they manage to get all three on.

The Bears worked through the five separate subteams to prepare for the competition. During the competition Ryan Chan served as the driver, Justin Grimm as the manipulator, Gabe Thompson as the strategist and Alivia Ward as the human player.

Although the team performed well, racking up a 10-1 record, it suffered a small setback during a match when there was a glitch in the computer coding for their robot.

“It would sit there and do nothing,” Van Buren said.

Despite the loss, BEAR Metal ultimately earned the first seed and given the first draft choice for the finals, which allowed them to create an alliance with two other strong teams.

During the finals, the matches were held back to back, which gave the Bears little to no time to fix any glitches before the next match. To prepare for any possible issue that might come up during the match they were forced to bring everything with them on the field.

Ward said that during one of the matches the robot’s LED sensor failed which required them to fix it while still in the middle of the match.

“It was really intense,” Ward said. “You have to stay on the field. You have to work on everything there, so you’re scrambling to get the tools you need. Many things can go on. If the robot stops working, you need the tools ready. It was really scary.”

Another thing the Bears benefited from was assistance by Tahoma alumni and former robotics members, such as Mitch Davis, who joked that he’s still a part of the club “because they haven’t kicked me out yet.”

“I can’t really see myself not doing this,” he said. “It’s too much fun. Whenever things come up, I’m like ‘That’s not going to work well, but you can try anyways.’ I like to let them learn.”

Thanks to good coordination with the other two teams Tahoma was able to score 30 points in the first 15 seconds of a match. Their alliance went undefeated, securing the regional championship for the first time since 2008.

The Bears will compete in the world championship event April 25-28 against 300 teams in St. Louis. The robot has already been shipped there though Jacob Tran, who worked on the robots programming, said they are still working on improving its performance including the shooter for the balls and cutting down its weight.

Mark Eads, president of BEAR Metal, said the team is going into the championship highly ranked.

“We’re going to have the best robot we’ve ever had,” he said.