Flashing lights, screaming teams, robots and obstacles clashing. 12 players lean over the fenced-in field, knowing the Space Coast League champions will be crowned after just two minutes and 30 seconds of scoring cubes, shooting balls and knocking-down rubber ducks. 

Sunday, Feb. 6, Hagerty Robotics hosted the Space Coast League Championship, where their teams 4717 The Mechromancers and 4227 Metal Morphosis won bids to the Florida State Championship. Facing each other in the finals, both Hagerty teams were able to battle it out for the top spot, with the Mechromancers’ alliance winning 254-184 points.

“It was great because you could tell both teams were up there because they were amazing with their robot,” sophomore Jensen Miller said. 

Playing a game called Freight Frenzy, the teams were expected to be able to collect and place cubes and wiffle balls into their team’s towers to score points, along with various other precision-based challenges. In the finals, the top teams sorted into alliances of three, with The Mechromancers aligning themselves with Gears Of Other Dimensions and the Oviedo High School team, the Roarbots. In the opposing alliance, Metal Morphosis allied with teams Uplift and F.R.E.N.C.H. F.R.I.E.S. Alliances were chosen based on chemistry and previous matches.

“They [Mechromancers and Roarbots] mesh so well together, and the teamwork and coordination between those two is on another level,” junior Tyler Hancock said. 

Although Hancock and his Metal Morphosis teammates did not win, they note how proud they were to hold strong against their rivals despite their significantly less experience, given that their team is made up of members who are new to the program. 

“We were definitely very stressed because we are a rookie team. A lot of these teams out here are seasoned; they’ve been doing this for I don’t know how many years, so us coming in and winning these awards is just incredible for us,” Hancock said. 

The Mechromancers faced their own struggles in the championship, noting that their programs malfunctioned in their earlier matches, until they discovered their sensor was focused on a green screen in the background instead of their cube.

“We had some challenges with that but we came back from it…. I’m proud of that,” junior Nathan Forrer said.

To end the night, both teams walked away with their own awards: The Mechromancers winning the Inspire award for top competitors and Metal Morphosis winning the Think award for their engineering notebook, detailing their robot design process. 

“I’m so proud of them working through these challenges that we’ve been facing for two years, and super, super stoked and excited for them to really, really excel at states,” robotics mentor Po Dickinson said.

The Mechromancers and Metal Morphosis will both be competing in the Florida State Championship at Winter Haven on March 4 for one of two bids to the World Championship in Houston, Texas.