[Ekcrbe]

I'll add my congratulations to the list. 118, 1678, 1671, and 5012, you guys made one of the most well-rounded alliances that I've ever seen. I haven't had the pleasure of working with many of the members of this alliance yet during my time in FRC, but I can say a couple things about Team 118.

In my opinions, the Robonauts are one of the most outstanding teams in FIRST. Every year, their videos dazzle and their robots live up to the hype. Even more importantly, though, they are some of the most down-to-earth, nicest people I've ever had the chance to speak with in FIRST. Multiple times, I've walked up to their pit just to ask questions about their robot, and they always have someone willing to explain all the effort and engineering that went into their devices. I particularly remember an encounter at IRI in 2012. It was Thursday and we had some time to kill after getting everything checked and running on our own robot, so a few of us wandered down the row to 118's pit. We got chatting about their custom molded wheels and their WCD setup, and we hung around for a while just being enamored with their machine. They never made us feel uncomfortable for staying so long, even when they justifiably could have, and they always were happy to answer our endless stream of questions. I think this is a testament to the kind of people the Robonauts grow on their team.

I had originally wanted to go look because their robot was conceptually so similar to ours. I was, and still am, simply in awe of the quality and style of their robots. That year, their robot mirrored ours in idea and function almost exactly, but everything was designed and built with stunning quality and attention to detail, and they seemed to have found the perfect way to accomplish a task in places where our robot was slightly suboptimal or improvised.

We had a qualification match with them the next day. Working with them on the practice field to get our triple balance down and being behind the glass with them was a joy. Their team stuck in my mind as particularly classy, respectful, and smart.

I was somewhat shocked when I heard the announcers on Einstein say that the Robonauts had not yet won a world championship. This one was far overdue. Congratulations!