Decatur High School’s robotics team, Global Dynamics, competed in their first competition for the year. The meet was held in Marietta, Georgia at the former Southern Polytechnic State University and hosted by First Tech Challenge (FTC).

This year, the remote-controlled robots are given a series of different tasks to perform for points. This can range from moving debris into designated parts of the field, turning on lights or, one of the more difficult challenges, climb a steep five foot mountain.

Unlike a typical competition, different teams are supposed to ally themselves with other competitors.They work on the same field and score points cooperatively. These change for each round, so for one match, teams may work together and the next play against each other.

David Schaar, the coordinator and supervisor of Global Dynamics, believes this gives another significant element to the gameplay.

“It sort of adds some extra excitement,” he said. “You have to think about what you’re doing and planning it. Your robot has to actually be helping theirs out, not the other way around.”

Like many of the other schools, Global Dynamics is separated into multiple teams: 6173, 5177, and 4232. This separates out the 40 members of Global Dynamics and gives the students more of an opportunity to work with the robots.

Team 6173 performed the best out of Global Dynamics. They won four out of five of their matches and were the third place Alliance Captains, meaning they could select the team they allied with for the semi-final and final rounds.

Teams 5177 and 4232 ranked 24th and 35th out of 35 in the competition. Sophomore Cameron Perry, a member of 4232, attributes the outcome to mechanical difficulty with the machine.

“Our electronics didn’t work,” he said, “so we couldn’t make the controller control the robot.”