Music blasts as the spectators on the bleachers dance to “Sweet Caroline” and “Thriller.” The judges sway to the music as they judge the robots, and competitors even sing along to the music as they compete.

On Saturday, Jan. 13, the Robotics team competed at the league championship with 17 other teams in the old gym. The championship consisted of teams from Brevard and Seminole Counties competing to go to state championship.

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology or FIRST, teams competed 4227, the Metal Morphosis, and 4717, the Mechromancers. Team 97052A, Cyber Shock, did not compete because they are part of the VEX team, a different group than FIRST.

The Mechromancers won the Inspire Award and placed third, competing in the final group where they lead the alliance team. Metal Morphosis won the Motivate Award and finished in 12th place,  an improvement from the Dec. 9 competition.

The league championship consisted of two portions: qualitative and quantitative.

Before the robots compete, each team goes through judging, the qualitative portion, where teams discuss their robots. The judges also look through the engineering notebooks, which document adjustments and changes to the robot, plus outreach events teams have done for their communities.

After the judging the robots perform, the quantitative portion. This takes place in a ’12×12′ field, and four teams compete at the same time, with each robot in a corner.

The objective is to earn as many points as possible during two minutes and 30 seconds.

The task given to the teams was to stack the glyphs, which are cubes, in a 4×3 square called the Crypto Box. Each glyph stacked earned a certain amount of points, and groups had to follow certain patterns to earn points.

There are also two colored balls on each corner, called jewels which are part of the Autonomous portion of the match where drivers are not allowed to control the robots. The robot had to hit the opponent team’s ball, earning a bonus point. Finally, four relics in each corner are present for the robots to lift and place outside the field onto a labeled mat, earning the teams more points.

Not only are there points to be earned competing, but different awards to be earned, like the Inspire Award, the highest award given to any robotics team which would qualify any team for states.

“I am proud of both of the teams for having their robot really unique in design and structure,” Media Specialist Po Dickison said.

The Mechromancers will compete at states in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, Feb. 3.