Patrick Henry High School’s Patribots robotics team recently played host to two robotic competitions: 200 student participants, 100 spectators, 50 volunteers, 36 robots, and two robot arenas.

The FIRST Tech Challenge Euclid League Finals were held in the main quad on campus.

Fifteen teams started the day by presenting their robot and season activities to judges from Qualcomm. Then, they went head-to-head on the field four robots at a time, to earn points and establish their rankings. Nine teams advanced from this competition to the San Diego Regional Finals, including both local FTC teams: The Dapper RoboNoodles and the Wizalos. The San Diego Regional Finals were held March 12 at Pacific Ridge High School in Carlsbad.

The FLL Cup, an event with twenty FIRST LEGO League robot teams from all over Southern California, was held on the south part of the quad and in the cafeteria. This off-season event is designed for new teams who didn’t get a chance to participate in the fall season’s qualifying tournaments, and teams who did not advance to finals additional opportunities to compete. Teams presented their robot designs to judges before racing their robots against the clock to complete tasks. The FLL Cup ended at noon, which gave attendees lots of time to watch the FTC matches and tour the Patribots workshop.

This was the second year in a row that the Patribots hosted an FTC competition on campus, and the first year it hosted an FLL event. They did this while busy with their own build season.

From March 24-26 at UCSD’s LionTree Arena, they—with 1,500 other students and 49 other teams—will compete with a robot the size of a person on a field the size of a basketball court at the FIRST Robotics Challenge San Diego Regional. Pits and matches are open to the public. Admission is free.

More information about this event is available online at: cafirst.org/frc/sandiego/.

Drone Photography by Eric Sands