Team 342 just returned from a very successful Regional Competition. The competition looked and proved to be very challenging, but our team was up for the challenge. We arrived on Thursday and began getting our robot ready for the trials. With our organized pit area and the tools in their proper place, we made a good impression on the judges and the fellow competitors right from the start. Due to the high number of teams at the competition we were not able to get time scheduled to set our autonomous mode, so the programmers wrote code to make the robot dance during the autonomous match time. Their goal was to get noticed by the announcers of the match so at least some recognition would be made.

As we began the qualifying matches on Friday, we quickly learned that the playing strategy we chose was the best scoring option. It also meant that the robot had to be very robust due the intense interaction with other robots while scoring. Our robot was made for that kind of action. We ranked 20 and higher for most of the day. Our students did 95% of the repairs and the mentors watched to ensure the job was done right. The judges noted that the students were well trained, exhibited gracious professionalism, and were playing in matches without adult mentors involved, and that was the intent of FIRST. Our robot got a lot of attention with its ability to score on all three levels, play defense, climb ramps, for being the prettiest robot there, and for the way it would dance during autonomous mode.

Team 342 played 6 matches on Friday and 2 matches on Saturday. We were selected by the #3 seeded team to play in the finals. Although we did very well, we were eventually eliminated from the finals.

In addition to a stellar performance by our robot and drive team, our team did win the Autodesk Visulaization Award and the Kliener Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award. We also came in 2nd for the Safety Award . Hopefully,
we can add more wins to the robot column and more trophies in the awards column at the Palmetto Regional in Columbia !