Students from Bishop Gorman High School’s robotics team competed in the Nevada State Championship on Saturday, March 6, at Green Valley High School, hoping to earn one of six spots at the World Championship. The team entered the competition ranked third in the state for skills, which measures a robot’s ability to score points outside of matches.
For the team, qualifying for the World Championship was a rewarding moment after a season of improvement and teamwork. Members say the group has grown significantly since the start of the season.
“My first thought when I realized we qualified for the World Championship was excitement and disbelief,” Connor Hofland ‘28 said. “This season we have grown so much as a team and went from being bottom 50% in the state to qualifying to the World Championship.”
The team competed in the skills challenge, one of the most important parts of the competition. In this portion, teams run their robots individually instead of competing directly against other teams.
According to the team members, this format allows teams to focus entirely on maximizing their robot’s performance. It’s different compared to tournament qualification and elimination matches that are instead head to head and involve two teams with one robot competing against two other teams, all wanting to attain the highest score.
“Talent and skill is part of all tournaments and involves all teams competing individually in an effort to attain the highest score,” Jaya Hoon ‘28 said.
Preparing for competitions like the state championship requires months of planning, designing, and testing. The Bishop Gorman team designed their robot specifically for this year’s game, Push Back, which involves collecting and scoring blocks across the field.
“The robot we built is intended to score the highest amount of points in the game Push Back,” Hofland said. “The robot picks up blocks around the field and scores them in goals around the field. The goals are elevated above the ground as horizontal tubes, parallel to the ground.”
Even though the team was eliminated during the head-to-head elimination rounds, they still had a chance to qualify for the World Championship through skill rankings and award results. As the awards were announced, the team realized their chances depended on another team receiving a judging award.
“Then they announced the team name and we were so happy, it was someone who had qualified via head-to-head matches and we were friends with them,” Hofland said. “I think this moment really brought multiple teams together and was very exciting and a lot of fun.”
