By the time Heather Davenport and Katie Slough realized what had happened, it was too late.

Under the gaze of hundreds in the Mountain view High School gym Saturday, the girls watched their Lego robot scoot across a pool-table sized platform before abruptly veering off course. Their puzzlement turned to horror as the robot plowed through the course, scattering tiny plastic bricks in its wake and bumping into the wall.

Still, minutes later, Heather and Katie and the rest of their team, “Girls on Fire,” were laughing at their misfortune

Roughly 160 kids from 9 to 14 years old participated in this year’s Lego Robotics Tournament, which drew 21 teams from around Central Oregon. Tournament director Lance Kansari said six of the teams will be selected to move on to the next level, a statewide tournament in Portland early next year.

Kansari said the teams had been practicing since September, when the governing body that oversees Lego robotics events unveiled the course for this year’s competitions.

With a theme of “Senior Solutions,” the course was designed to approximate tasks that can be difficult for senior citizens with limited mobility. The Lego robots, built and programmed by the kids, navigate on wheels around obstacles and use mechanical arms to push and lift items in simulated missions like “turn stove burners off” or “fix a chair.”

At the heart of each Lego robot is a computer processor, slightly larger than a mobile phone. With the robot connected to a laptop computer, the team members load instructions onto the processor, telling the robot where to go and what to do. The unscheduled rampage by the Girls on Fire robot was determined to be human error, the result of sending the robot out to perform the “gardening” mission when it should have been set to “move a quilt.”

Only a handful of the Girls on Fire were involved with Lego robotics before this year. Katie had been part of a team at her school last year, but as the team’s only girl, she felt like her input was often ignored by her teammates. Though she did prevail in naming her team last year — “Three Bad Apples and a Peach” — this year, she set out to organize a girls-only squad through her 4-H club.

Members said with no boys on their team, it’s easier for them to have a voice in team decisions.

“I sort of feel like we’re more equal as all girls,” Heather said.

For the fourth- and fifth-graders on the Lava Ridge Elementary School team, Saturday’s competition was a first. This is the first year the school has fielded a team, and its members set their expectations realistically.

“Even though we probably won’t win, we’ll win at having fun,” said fifth-grader Forrest Hassell. “We’re winning at losing.”

Fourth-grader Owen Baker said the Lava Ridge robot is fairly primitive compared to those built by some of the more seasoned teams, and was regularly falling short of completing the missions his team selected for it. Just the same, he said the team was sitting near the middle of the standings with a chance to move up in the final competition of the day.

“We have fun, and we’re getting better at teamwork,” Owen said.

Kansari said finding a way as a team to overcome setbacks is one of the primary lessons kids take away from competing.

“It’s just like real world engineering — it’s a messy world, and things never work like you want them to.”