Eagle Engineering fielded two teams at the Holmes International VEX Robotics tournament on Saturday, February 18. Team 1138B from the high school, and Team 83 from the middle school were part of the 42 teams who battled for prestige and the chance to qualify for California State Championships.

After qualifying rounds, both teams placed in the Top 10, and entered playoffs. At this point in the tournament, the top teams form alliances between three robots, for a total of eight alliances. During alliance selection, the number one qualifying team selected Team 1138B and Peninsula High School Team 3050B. Team 83 was seeded as the number five seed alliance captain and selected Malibu High School Team 224X and HiTek Team 12180B. Both alliances won their quarterfinal rounds, and Chaminade’s two teams were forced to face each other in the semi-finals.

After a hard-fought three-round semi-final, Team 83’s alliance was the victor; and their win put them in a finals showdown against the number two alliance of Harvard-Westlake, Champs Charter and Calabasas High School. Ultimately, the number five alliance pulled an upset in two straight matches, and emerged as Tournament Champions.

It was an impressive performance by the number five alliance. Team 83 was one of two middle schools in the alliance, and their group of three was comprised of teams ranked seven, 20, and 28.

The win automatically qualified Team 83 to the California State Championships in March.