Utopia for mechanically inclined teenagers would be a place of great chaos.
The FIRST Robotics Competition at Virginia Commonwealth University's Siegel Center yesterday served as proof.
The two-day competition among 63 high schools from across Virginia and four other states brought nearly 3,000 participants and spectators to VCU, where teams competed in what was essentially an extremely complicated robotic soccer match.
The results were weird.
On the floor of the Siegel Center, soccer balls flew as a rotating cast of mechanical battering wagons rammed into one another and hopped walls. Over pulsing music and frequent announcements, the crowd -- dressed in team colors, wigs, cheese hats, and in some cases, drag -- roared.
"People get really geeked up on this stuff," said Jim Babb, a public affairs coordinator for organizer Virginia FIRST.
Greer Peterson, a senior at Mills E. Godwin High School in Henrico County, said his team, Talon 540, wasn't competing as well as expected. But the members were having a blast anyway.
"It's all really frantic, especially when things aren't going like you want them to, but it's cool being frantic and running around trying to keep everything straight," he said. His team is already headed to Atlanta in April for the national competition.
The L.C. Bird RoboHawks from Chesterfield County were fighting to join them, having won the excellence in engineering award Friday.
"It's a lot of fun," said Ryan Dobbs, in his second year on the team. "I've just always been interested in building and taking things apart, and robotics seemed like a natural extension of that."
"And it's not only the mechanical part, the team has to run like a business," added Peterson, noting that the team even has a public relations arm.
The true spirit of the competition, said Virginia FIRST regional director Pattie Cook, is encouraging team-building and working with the community.
Top-winning teams were Blue Cheese from Deep Run High School in Henrico, which also won the Engineering Inspiration Award for advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and engineers in their school and community; Vae Victus from George Mason High School in Falls Church; and Pascack Pi-oneers from Pascack Valley Regional High School District in Montvale, N.J.
The runner-up alliance consisted of the RoboHawks; the Enginerds from Highland Springs High School in Henrico; and the Lambda Corp from Osbourn High School in Manassas.
Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or whester@timesdispatch.com.
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