Despite another strong performance at the Arizona Regional last week, Team Hyper 69 came up just short again, and was eliminated in the semifinals of the First Robotics Competition on Saturday. The team's overall record is now 17-7 in 2009 Lunacy competition.

The team opened competition with an impressive 8-1 record in the qualifying round, putting them in second place out of 44 teams. That proved good enough to advance to the quarterfinal round, where they were placed in an alliance with Team 498, the Cobra Commanders from Cactus High School in Glendale, AZ, and Team 2837, Freebird Robotics from Gilbert, AZ.

The teams won their two quarterfinal matches in impressive fashion, 108-35 and 76-38, to advance to the semifinals, but fell in two incredibly close matches, losing 60-58 and 60-50. 

The eventual champions were Team 1165, Team Paradise from Paradise Valley High School in Phoenix, AZ, Team 39, The 39th Aero Squadron from Highland High School in Gilbert, AZ, and Team 1726, N.E.R.D.S. (Nifty Engineering Robotics Design Squad) from Buena High School in Sierra Vista, AZ. All will be advancing to the First Robotics Competition Championship in Atlanta, which will be held April 16-18.

Competing against nearly 100 teams in the span of two weeks and advancing to within two matches of a championship at the Boston Regional, as well as in Arizona, is an impressive achievement that Team Hyper can only hope to better next year.