Portland Performance

Paly Robotics team ranked higher than ever in Portland last weekend. Out of a field of 61 high schools and technical schools - Paly's robot out-performed all but 3. Even more awesome than that is the fact that in virtually all our matches, our robot scored all the points - 42 goals in all.

Here's an animation of the 2010 FIRST challenge if you haven't seen it yet.

Finishing at the #4 position in the top 8 teams gave Paly the privilege of having the 4th pick in choosing it's alliance partners in the finals. The team chose Aviation High School Des Moines, WA and Tahoma Senior High School in Maple Valley, WA as its partners in the final elimination rounds.

After battling through a grueling 4 round elimination in the quarter finals, Paly went on to outscore its opponent in the semi's but some unfortunate penalty calls kept a championship finish out of reach.

It wasn't an easy regional by any means either as the Portland regional total elimination match score was 139 vs. 135 at the San Diego Regional on the same weekend. Gunn ranked 26th at that regional with a total of 14 goals.

Our robot was also rock solid as well - able to push any opponent out of the way as necessary and rugged enough to withstand the pounding of every match. One very unique feature which makes Paly stand out from the crowded competition is its deployable large green & white sail. If you get a chance to watch an archived match, notice how the sail can be used to catch balls and defend goals but is also able to collapse to allow the robot to cross the field through the tunnels.

Check out one of our matches here.