The veteran U-High Robotics team We Byte will advance to the state competition Feb. 21-22 after winning the regional championship for the second year in a row on Feb. 1. 

A rookie U-High team, Sprockets and Screws, made it to the semifinals of the elimination round. The two teams also took the top two spots for the design awards. 

At competitions, students code their robots to move and identify objects like Legos. Teams work together, not against each other, to earn points. 

Both teams also competed Jan. 21 at the Third Invitational Competition. 

“[We Byte] did some things really, really well. But they were still lacking some of the skills of moving those blocks and actually stacking them,” head coach Darren Fuller said. 

At the Third Invitational, the rookie team lost three matches due to penalties and errors.

“[Sprockets and Screws] made some silly mistakes. And they also were lacking an alliance partner in one of their matches,” Mr. Fuller said. “They won their last two matches — and they’re the only robot in our league that can actually stack four blocks high consistently.” 

Mr. Fuller said a lot of preparation work goes into the competitions. 

“In a nutshell, you build prototypes, you test prototypes, you revise prototypes,” Mr. Fuller said. “At the competition, it comes down to good communication, because you end up working with different robots at each match, and you have to communicate with that other team to form a strategy really quickly.”