I had 14 hours to congratulate 1477 on the bus ride back to Houston but that still wasn't enough. I have seen Texas Torque develop over the years from the Northside Roboteers and their
1st Regional Win in 2008 into one of the peranial Texas powerhouses (and lately World Powerhouse). Torque is a model team for everyone in FRC to look up to. They have been doing it right for many years now and their hard work has paid off more than ever.
They had what can only be described as a rollercoaster of a season and it ended on the highest of peaks. Three events without even a finalist appearance, last minute champs qualification at their 4th regional in Week 6 (undefeated at Razorback). They then completely changed their shooter for championship moving away from a 3 wheeled banebot shooter to a two wheel shooter design with new wheels. This and a few programming issues led to several issues that they had to work through on Thursday and Friday before they were ready for eliminations on Saturday. 1477 hit all 7 discs in auton maybe once or twice this season before putting the robot down on Einstein; they hit them all several times when they needed every disc. Had you told anyone on Torque at the beginning of the year that their lift would be the reason they could defend 469 in the finals on Einstein they would have thought you were crazy.
1241 put together the best (obviously) lower seed alliance at the event. 610, 1477 and themselves were dynamic in every sense of the word. They had several tricks they didn't ever need but could have used. Mid-line auto, and full court shooting come to mind.
I was on the Galileo field as an inspector and marveled at this alliance's play. Every time it looked like the #5 alliance was going to go down they fought their way back and prevailed. It is the most impressive Championship run I have ever seen. All but one of their rounds had to go to a rubber match (They set the record for most eliminations matches played on the way to the title at least since 2002). Not only did they go to 3 rounds they lost the first match in everyone except for the division final. That means they played an unbelievable 8 win or go home matches. How they managed to deal with the stress is remarkable especially after being told they lost the event and then getting to keep playing.
Congratulations to the new WORLD CHAMPIONS 1241 THEORY6, 610 The Coyotes and 1477 Texas Torque. 1477 is now the highest numbered team to ever win the championship.