Robotics team successful in Portland
March 20, 2013
Team members from all over the northwest enter the stadium in Portland early Thursday morning for the season's first regional robotics competition.
Story by Sally Balcaen
Photos by Sarah Schuman

FIRST Team 2130 members Elsa Presnell and Arianna Nicholson-Ross share a smile of excitement at being in the stadium.
On March 6, FIRST team 2130, also known as Alpha +, left the high school for their first competition. Their destination: Portland. The trip and competition proved to be a successful, albeit busy venture for 2130 as they, once again, went to the final round of matches and performed extraordinarily.

On the day following arrival in Portland, teams from all over the northwest, including California and Hawaii, gathered in the stadium and set up their booths.

They participated in practice matches as teams learned and became familiar with the alliances, field, and the best strategies to use.

As part of the strategy to ensure good alliance members for the matches, Team 2130 met with the other 59 teams in attendance.

Team captain Andrew Reed talks with regulation inspectors; Benevolence passed with flying colors!
Overall, the team did well for their first day. The team won their first three games with 62, 110, 54 points respectively with each game. They lost their fourth game, but still managed to score a total of 103 points. The fifth match was probably the most disappointing, as they lost and only scored 26 points.

Then, on the very last game of the day, 2130 scored a total of 45 points, giving them a win for that round. On March 8, we continued competing and also did well for our second day. We won our first three games with 94 points, 60 points, and 95 points.

The way the final round work at FIRST competitions is based on ranking. The more victories a team has, the higher up they are ranked among other teams. The rankings constantly change as matches continue throughout the day.

However, the goal of every team is to be ranked in the top eight teams. These teams are guaranteed to be in the final round and have the opportunity to choose which two teams they can be alliance with.

This small provision allows for teams that built an excellent robot but had some unfortunate luck with their matches still have a chance to be in the final round.

Luckily, Alpha + didn’t have to worry about that as they placed sixth in the top eight teams. Before 2130 was even able to choose their alliance members, another team placed even higher than us extended an offer to join their alliance.

We graciously accepted. Our alliance was FIRST team 3812, Bits & Bots, and FIRST team 3145, the Teraviks.

At this point, the matches are very serious and even sometimes stressful, as only the best teams are playing and only teams that win two out of three matches are able to move on.

Benevolence on the field and in action during a game. Surrounding robots are alliance members.
Luckily, the robot, Benevolence, came through for the team.

The first three matches were won with 103 points, 64 points, and 125 points, sending Alpha + in the next round. Team 2130 continued their winning streak by triumphing during the next three matches with 59 points, 88 points, and 102 points.

The team was now in the final round, which would decide the two opposing alliances in the championship game.

Team 2130 won the first game, but lost the second two, despite scoring 103 points for the second game and 50 points for the third game.

However, Alpha + placed second and during the awards ceremony, two trophies were given for being FIRST Robotics Competition Finalists and every team member present was awarded a second place medal.

And then, as a wonderful surprise, mentor Ed Katz, who started the Alpha + team in Bonners Ferry received the highly coveted Woody Flower's Award, which is given to outstanding team mentors.

Thus, the completion in Portland was a success and the team anticipates more achievements at another competition in Cheney, Washington, during Spring Break.