The second floor of Hoover Hall was full of teams of nine to 14-year-olds coalescing into small packs waiting to reveal their robots for the annual Iowa FIRST LEGO League State Championships Saturday.

The championships is a two-day event as the remaining teams will show off their robots from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

The affair is defined by the spirit of “coopertition,” as a key part of the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) organization’s mission statement – competitive, but at the root of it is cooperation.

This year’s LEGO League challenge is to be a “City Shaper,” coming together to “help the cities, towns and places you call home reach new heights,” according to the challenge summary on the FIRST website.

Taking the bridge into the Howe atrium, throngs of people surrounded the railings on every floor overlooking the bottom floor. There, tables were set up, robots placed and children lined up facing each other to watch their LEGO creations do their thing.

On the battlegrounds, teams wore anything from colored T-shirts with their team logo printed on it to construction vests to full-on milkman costumes to fit their team.

The team names ranged from anything as simple as Waukee’s “Team Wolves” to “Shellsburg’s “Purple Sea Monkeys Eating Scotcheroos.”

An announcer, decked out in a lab coat scribbled in bright writing and a purple wizard hat announced the face off of teams “Team Wolves” and the “Cows of Yoda.”

The robots had a variety of tasks to accomplish in a three minute time limit, ranging from crossing a bridge to lifting objects with a crane to creating buildings.

Every new development was broadcast through a souped-up series of speakers as a gigantic camera rig panned across the table. The camera showed off one of the boxy robots executing a series of commands to carefully trundle across a bridge.

The clock ticked down and alarms blared in the last 10 seconds.

As the long arm of the camera descended and zoomed in on a child’s beaming smile — still missing some teeth — the cheering and music drowned out the voice of the announcer.

The second day for the FIRST LEGO League State Championships will begin at 9 a.m. in the Howe Atrium of Hoover Hall.