Paly’s Robotics team celebrates the status of their first place win in the FIRST Las Vegas Regional.

The competition is played much like basketball in groups of three schools per team, with some robots shooting balls into baskets for three points and other robots defending. There are also human players who can roll balls across the court into lower goals for one point each.

Eight schools who make it to the finals are allowed to pick two other schools to play with them. The first ranked team picks their first teammate and then each school ranked under picks theirs. Then once the eighth team picks their first school, they choose again for their second school. Then the picking goes all the way up to the first ranked school.

"Now that we’ve won, we’ve created a status for ourselves and can get a sponsorship," senior and co-captain Cameron Tacklind said.

According to Robotics team members, the Vikes were nervous when the schools were on their second round of choosing, and they had not been picked by any of the other schools yet.

"[I was] extremely nervous," mentor Doug Bertain said.

Then it was time for the first ranked team, North Brunswick from New Jersey, to pick their last school, the last pick of the day.

And they choose Paly’s robotics team.

"[We were] picked by Team 25, the formally highest scoring national team," junior team member Spencer Rivette said.

According to the members, the team burst into excitement when the number one team picked them.

"It was chaos," junior animation captain Michelle Chan said. "We were tense [before being picked]. After we got picked there was quite a variety of reactions. Clark [Willison, co-captain] collapsed."

"It was the biggest eruption you’ve ever heard… We had just been picked by the hot s*** team," senior and co-captain Cameron Tacklind said. "Our team stormed the field and all the judges went crazy saying ‘You’re not supposed to be here!’"

But before the pick, there were mixed feelings on whether the team would be playing in the finals since they had not been picked yet.

"I didn’t think we were going to get picked," Chan said.

Yet Willison had a different mindset.

"I was fairly confident we were at least the tenth best team… We had made friends with the first placed team. They knew even though we didn’t do well in the qualifying matches that we [had] a good robot."

After being picked, Paly went on to play defense for their combined team with North Brunswick High School and Cimarron-Memorial High School of Las Vegas.

"In the finals we were undefeated because we did crazy good defense and they [the two other schools on the team] did crazy good offense," Tacklind said. "You basically have to defend as well as you can."

With their skilled offense and defense, Paly, North Brunswick and Cimarron-Memorial were ahead 110-24 and they continued to score, winning with a total of 122 points.

"The normal score [for a game] is 40," Tacklind said.

After the win, the team enjoyed a celebration in the city of Las Vegas.

"They were so excited," Bertain said. "We [Bertain and other mentors] paid for their dinner at Circus Circus. They were in Vegas, so it’s an experience."

With a first place win and a celebration in Las Vegas, the Robotics team came home ebullient and satisfied.

"It was awesome," Bertain said.

Next, the team looks forward to the Botball competition since they are not competing in the FIRST nationals competition.

"We probably wouldn’t win nationals," Tacklind said. "[In Las Vegas the competition went] perfectly. It was the best because we won. We were the best defensive [robot] at the competition. Now we’ve won and everyone knows it."