Team 980 competed solidly in its tenth Los Angeles Regional event, held March 25-26 in the Long Beach Sports Arena. We completed the qualification rounds in 15th place (out of 63) and we were the fourth team picked in alliance selections. We were eliminated in three quarterfinal matches, but emerged as a strong contender.

Team 980 in action at the 2011 Los Angeles Regional.

Our robot performed quite well in the competition. Our autonomous mode became much more effective after line-tracking capability was realized (perfect performance in the elimination round). We showed great scoring capability, especially in Match 43 with almost 40 points scored via a top-row Ubertube and a nearly complete rack of Logos! We made progress with the minibot/deployer on the practice field and have an approach to improve our deployment targeting.

Team 980 moving to complete a top-row Logo

Our lead mentor, David Brinza, was presented with the “Outstanding Volunteer Award” by the Los Angeles Regional Planning Committee.

Team 980 will next be competing at the FIRST Championship in St. Louis on April 28-30. Some minor mechanical and controls upgrades are planned over the next three weeks before we go to the “big show.”

Team 980 looks forward to competing with the top teams in FIRST at the Championship in St. Louis.

Please join us or look for the web-cast of the event.