Dread Pirates compete at signature event

The Dread Pirates, Jace Newsom and Joshua Linford, traveled to Arizona to compete at Diamond in the Desert, a signature robotics event that took place December 30-31, 2025. This event hosted over 100 teams from all over the world, making it very challenging.

One of the team’s biggest accomplishments was in the skills competition of the tournament. They scored a combined 173 points in skills, ranking third place and just 12 points away from first at the competition. The skills competition consists of two portions, driving and autonomous, both timed one-minute runs. They were able to get 75 points on the first autonomous run, just barely missing an additional 20 points for parking the robot and clearing a zone. So close to a world record, the team tried again with two other runs but missed multiple objectives. For the driver runs on the second try, they scored 98 points. They will improve and try again at the next event to break a recent record of a combined 213 points.

Newsom reflected on the experience, “There was a lot to learn from this competition — specifically about the autonomous portions. My team plans to develop methods to consistently score more points in the matches and in skills. We hope this implementation will give us an advantage at our next competitions and at state.”

In their qualification matches, they received one of the toughest match schedules, facing some of the best teams in their division. Despite this, they managed to rank 10th place after the qualification matches concluded on the second day.

Due to their rank, they were able to be in a picking position for the elimination bracket. Choosing an alliance is a pivotal part of success in the bracket. Teams were given an hour to talk about who they would alliance with. Many of the teams that the Dread Pirates wanted to pair with ended up being chosen by teams that were seeded higher, so they chose the Robohawks, a team from California.

In the elimination matches, they lost, 45-54, in the round of 16, mainly because their alliance partner’s autonomous routine failed at the beginning of the match due to a mechanical failure.

“Signature events are a lot more challenging, and it was awesome to see how well our team performed under stress. We had a really tough lineup. A lot of the teams we paired with were low-level, and it made it difficult to secure a win,” said Bryan Linford, Pirate robotics coach. “We were able to finish 10th overall, which is very impressive considering the matches they had, and finishing third in skills places them 25th in the world, which is amazing considering the number of teams worldwide.”

Pirate robotics will be hosting a VEX Robotics Competition on Jan. 17 at MVHS. All three teams are preparing for state in March and will attend around three more competitions.