Team 972 Iron Claw Robotics ranked 39/290 in California, 319/2927 in the United States, and 378/3690 in the WORLD. Although we ranked very well, we did not have the chance to attend the 2025 FIRST World Championship in Houston.

This season provided invaluable experience as we continually refined our robot, Vantage. Our hard work culminated in a 2nd place finish at the East Bay Regional—an achievement we are incredibly proud of.

We are sincerely grateful for the opportunity to compete at the Pinnacles Regional, the Sacramento Regional, and the East Bay Regional. A heartfelt thank you to our alliance partners for their collaboration, and to our sponsors, families, and friends for their unwavering support throughout the season. Your encouragement and generosity continue to drive our success.

Although Iron Claw Robotics did not attend the World Championships this year, our team is proud of our performance this season. We look forward to seeing how we will progress and develop from our accomplishments during the 2023-2024 season. Our team is very grateful for the opportunity to compete at Silicon Valley Regional, Central Valley Regional, and East Bay Regional. Thank you to our alliance partners for working with us, as well as our sponsors, family, and friends for supporting our team!

The end of the 2023 season marks a new era of outstanding potential for team Iron Claw Robotics. Throughout the season, each competition we competed in has helped us pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of our robot, allowing us to improve our robot more and more in preparation for the World Championships. Our hard work paid off as our team celebrated our victory in the Archimedes Division, setting the bar at unprecedented heights.

Excited to be back, yet well-aware of the challenges we would face due to coming back from the COVID-19 pandemic, we set humble expectations for our season and robot. We instantly recognized the importance of a consistent climb and set our initial goals as the high climb while shooting low hub. These expectations were reinforced at our first competition, the Hueneme Port Regional (HPR), and we even started shooting into the high hub as the competition went on. After our average performance, coming in 25th place after qualification matches and losing in the quarter-finals of the play-offs, we came back reinvigorated to improve on our robot.

Earlier this semester, we wrapped up our first Hackathon, where we gave small groups free rein over what they wanted to make. In other news, going back in person means that we’ve been able to resume some of our fundraising activities. On May 8, a group of students went cold calling, and on May 15, there will be another round with a separate group of team members.