Was looking around to find some online forums or something about the show to see what people were saying. This is what I found on this forum, located
here.
"I did not really care about the whole robotics thing. I hope the mention of another competition means the show's not dropping Mariana taking Jesus' pills."
"I wasn't into it either, have no idea how true to life it was. I did like Mariana's strategy paying off, but it felt a little tropey with the insufferable teacher from Palomar."
"I don't love the robotics thing either, but I do like that they gave this storyline to Mariana (and Jesus, I guess!)."
"I don't get how it was okay for the teacher at the other school to be basically doing the work and standing behind the line during the competition. I can buy that the school has a lot of extra "coaches" that help build the robot, but why was he more involved during the competition itself? And why couldn't the Anchor Beach coach not complain about it?"
" I hope I never see another robot competition on this show or anywhere else!"
"I also was bored with the Robotics competition. I think the problem was I had no idea what was going on. They should have made it clear either this episode or over the course of the time they were working on it, exactly what the robot was meant to do. I had no investment because I couldn't tell if they were winning or losing at any given moment. Mariana rocked it with her quick thinking, but I still don't understand how the robot was pinned for longer than 5 seconds yet the referee just ignored it?"
This is every quote I could find that had the robotics competition mentioned. Interesting to see some of the feedback from people not already aware of FRC or FIRST.