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RALEIGH – Hundreds of high school students have come from all across the world to compete in the North Carolina Regional First Robotics Competition.

Teams of high school students, mentors and engineering professionals spent six weeks building robots from a kit.

Their creations are put to the test in a robotics version of extreme soccer, a game called Breakaway.

“We wanted the robot to climb the bumps on the field,” explained Erin Wenig, a member of The Flying Platypi, a team from the Greensboro area. “We wanted to score well, and hopefully go under the bump."

Forty-four teams have come from all across the U.S. and the world to compete in the robotics tournament. It's the first time North Carolina has ever hosted a regional event.

"It is very, very exciting to finally have this event here,” said Marie Hopper, the regional director for NC FIRST. “It took a lot of work. We have over 200 volunteers working with us over three days to make this event possible."

There are 14 states represented in the competition, including teams from 11 counties throughout North Carolina. There's even a team from Brazil.

Jeser Becker, of the Brazilian Trail Blazers, explained that his team wanted to make history by participating in the first N.C. regional tourney. They were also happy about the type of game that was developed for this year's competition.

"Everybody on my team plays very good football,” Becker said. “And, my robot too."

But even more important than scoring goals in the matches is working together with other teams and learning from the experience.

"If you have kids that are seriously interested in math and science, and that's what you're going to find about the majority of kids here, then they're going to be successful with the right mentoring and engineers giving them some guidance," said Myron Bryant, a mentor with Team Prion from Greensboro.