The Paly Robotics team is currently petitioning for the FIRST Robotics Organization to invite the team to the upcoming national championships in Atlanta, according to Paly Robotics captain Daniel Shaffer.

The Paly and Gunn Robotics teams joined forces with the Hawaii Hilo Pride Robotics team to win second place at the FIRST Robotics Competition’s Silicon Valley Regional held in San Jose, on March 13. In a controversial set of four final rounds, the two Palo Alto robotics teams formed an alliance with a robotics team from Hawaii to compete against an alliance from Woodside and Carlmont high schools.

After losing to the Woodside-Carlmont alliance, the Palo Alto-Hilo alliance took second place after the final round, losing a spot at the national championships in Atlanta. The Silicon Valley Regional is one of 42 competitions that the For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Championship is holding this year.

The Paly Robotics team is unsatisfied with the referees’ decision in San Jose, and would like to have an opportunity to compete at the national championships, according to Shaffer.

“It’s just because we don’t necessarily agree with the decisions made,” Shaffer said. “But we’re definitely not asking for prizes.”

After several qualification matches on Friday and Saturday morning, in which schools competed in random pairs, the top eight teams advanced to elimination rounds on Saturday afternoon. Among these winning teams were Hawaii’s Hilo Warrior Pride, which took second place, and Gunn, which ranked third. Paly came in 28th in a pool of 48 competing schools.

The qualifying eight teams then picked two schools to form an alliance to compete in the final rounds. Hawaii Hilo Pride chose the Paly and Gunn teams to form the second seeded alliance. Woodside and Carlmont, which took first place in eliminations, teamed up with the teams from Bellarmine and Monte Vista High.

After advancing through three quarterfinal rounds and three semifinal rounds, the Hawaiian-Palo Altan alliance competed with the Woodside-Carlmont alliance in four final rounds, culminating in a controversial final match in which a penalty called by the referees after the third match had already ended forced the two teams to compete in a rematch.

According to Fiona Wilkes, Gunn robotics team member, the referees announced after the match that they had made a mistake in calling the penalty. If the match had been called correctly, the Palo Alto-Hilo alliance would have won first place and advanced to nationals in Atlanta, according to Wilkes. In the rematch, the Palo Alto-Hilo alliance narrowly lost to Woodside-Carlmont, 66-58.

“They won the first match fair and square, and we won the second, even though the referees believed that some penalties should have been awarded,” said Paly captain Daniel Shaffer. “After the third match, the referees first thought that the other team had won.”

The referees originally decided that the opposing alliance had won the third match, but after some confusion, they then determined that the Palo Alto-Hilo alliance had won, according to Shaffer.

“They were in favor of the opposing alliance at first, but neglected a count of 12 points in our favor,” Shaffer said.

However, instead of reversing their original decision, the referees instructed the two alliances to compete in a rematch, which the Woodside-Carlmont alliance ultimately won. The fourth and final match was extremely close, according to Shaffer.

“The other team won the round by a foot or a second,” Shaffer said.

Overall, the Silicon Valley Regional was a positive experience for Paly Robotics, according to Shaffer.

“It was a lot of fun, and the team from the Hawaii put in a lot of team spirit into the alliance,” Shaffer said. “A lot of people got into it and started dancing. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

The Paly-Gunn alliance was a unique experience for the Gunn robotics team as well, according to Wilkes.

“Our alliance did really well, especially against the alliance we were competing against in the finals— one of the teams in that alliance won regionals several times in past years,” Wilkes said. “The Paly team was good to work with and we were successful, so that was fun. It was fun to run around in a viking hat— I’ve never done that before!”

Paly Robotics is now optimistic about its chances at the next FIRST regional on March 26 in Las Vegas.

“This is the best we’ve done at the [Silicon Valley Regional] in seven years,” Shaffer said. “We’re looking forward to Las Vegas.”