Three robotics teams in the Pleasant Valley area competed in the Machu Picchu Iowa Qualifiers at Iowa City West High School on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. “The competition lasted over eight hours and had some of the top robotics teams across the state”, said Saswhat Choudhary, member of the Winter Soldiers.
The competition is part of FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), which is under the parent organization FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. It is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting STEM opportunities to communities around the world.
For the past five months, teams have been building robots, writing engineering portfolios and practicing judging questions, all leading to the Iowa State Qualifiers. There are three Iowa Championship Qualifier competitions: Acropolis, Easter Island & Chichen Itza and Machu Picchu. The Machu Picchu Qualifier is where the PV teams competed.
Representing PV, Team 6093 Deviation From The Norm, Team 7196 Everything That’s Radical and a community team based in Bettendorf, Team 8813 Winter Soldiers.
At the start of every season, there is a new theme/challenge that is announced at the start of September with a YouTube video. This year’s theme is called DECODE, consisting of robots picking up artifacts, such as wiffle balls, and launching them into each team’s respective scoring containers.
The competition is broken up into two major parts: the robot game and judging. The robot game is purely focused on each team’s robot’s performance on the field. In every match, four robots in teams of two compete on a field at the same time. Teams are randomly paired, and games are scheduled before the competition.
Beyond the games, teams are evaluated through a formal judging session where the judges ask questions at each team’s pits throughout the competition. Teams are asked to present their design process and outreach efforts, and using the robot game and judging interviews, the judges determine the awards.
Overall, the PV teams were very successful, winning many accolades. Deviation From The Norm and Everything That’s Radical both won 14 out of 15 games. Deviation received the 2nd Place Inspire Award and was the Winning Alliance.
Everything That’s Radical received the Sustain Award and was the Finalist Alliance Captain. Winter Soldiers received the Connect Award.
Additionally, two members of Deviation, Alex S. and Jesse B., and two members of Radical, James L. and Lilly L, were recognized as FIRST Leadership Semi-Finalists.
Overall, the teams felt happy with their performance. Jonathon Hawkes, a member of PV Robotics, said, “I am very happy with the team’s overall performance this competition season. Everyone has done a great job of staying organized and has put in lots of hours of work to ensure we are prepared for competitions. Additionally, because of that preparation, we managed to be the 1st team advancing to state from our league.”
Deviation and Radical will both look forward to preparing for the Iowa State Championship on February 27, 2026. “We are preparing for state by making our robot more accurate. At the league competition, we had a lot of issues with shooting consistency. Another thing we are doing for state is scouting a bunch of different high-end competitive teams to see who we need to beat and who we want to be an alliance with,” said Hawkes.
