Twenty-four First Lego League (FLL) teams from eight Bay Area cities came to Leland High School last month to compete in the FLL Quixilver Qualifier. The event, hosted by the Leland’s FIRST Robotics Competition Team FRC 604 Quixilver, attracted 135 students and their parents and coaches.
There are 550 FLL teams in NorCal, the fourth largest region in the US and Canada. The FLL season starts each August when a new challenge is released. The teams build and program robots using the Lego Education robotics kits that have motors, sensors and gyros.
Teams could enter their robots in up to 15 “missions” during the competition. In addition, team members worked on a research project based on the year’s theme, “Masterpiece,” showing how STEM and technology are used in the arts. At the competition, teams met with judges who evaluated their robots’ design and programming, their research project and how the students demonstrated the six core values of the FLL program: discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork and fun.
Code Warriors from Fremont earned the first-place Champion’s award, and the second-place Champion’s award went to Robo Brain from San Jose. Both these teams earned an automatic spot at the upcoming NorCal FLL Championship in 2024. Autorun from Sunnyvale earned the highest score and also qualified for advancement.
Other teams headed to the NorCal championship include Team H.E.R. from Saratoga, who won the project innovation award; Team D()lphins from San Jose, who were awarded the Core Values trophy; and FLL Voyager from Sunnyvale who earned the Robot Design award. The Bullis Gold Team from Los Altos were named the Rising All Stars.
Leland’s Quixilver team has several championships under its belt, most recently having been crowned Carver Division Champions at the FLL World Championship in Houston in April 2022.