On March 17, the de Toledo robotics team embarked on their first robotics competition of 2022. As robotics is a lesser known team at our school, I am going to give a quick review of the objectives of the competition: teams were randomly selected for an alliance of three robots, and each team would try to collect more points by shooting balls into a two layer hoop called “the hub.” Teams could also get more points by having their robots climb and hang on bars of different heights. 

There isn’t much to say about the competition itself; however, I was surprised by the environment of the pit area, and the attitude of all the teams. By the way the teams acted towards each other, you would not be able to tell that it was a competition. Teams were handing out buttons, temporary tattoos, and bracelets. Everyone was extremely approachable and never hesitated to help each other out, whether it was giving them extra supplies or information about their robots. Teams were joking around with each other and would cheer on the teams that were competing in the matches even if their robot wasn’t playing. 

It was also surprising to see the amount of young girls there, including the all-girls team. There were more female team members than I expected to see at the competition; however, the majority of teams were male, with women making up about one-third of the population.

Team members continued their journey to the San Jose Regionals April 7-11.