Congrats to this year's champions: 330 2481 120 1086

[Joe Ross]

That was incredible. I remember Michael Corsetto posting in 2014 about their constant issues and never enough time to fix things. That was definitely the case for our alliance. Stronghold is a tough game that just wears on the robots. We played 17 matches on Saturday, which is more than we played at the LA regional. Everyone on the alliance was constantly fixing things and making jury rigged fixes. I think our alliance was operating at about 80% by the end. I'm not sure we could have survived another match.

There's a lot of teams to thank and congratulate.

2481 You guys impressed us starting with our pre-scouting. Your shot was awesome. Your scouting data identified helped identify 120. It seemed like everywhere I turned, there was a volunteer with an affiliation with 2481.

120 It's been said that 2nd picks win championships, and that's definitely true in this case. Your consistent climb and and shooting saved our bacon multiple times. It was great reprising our alliance that made Einstein in 2007, and glad there was a better outcome.

1086 Thanks for being there to fill in. We called you in to the highest stress period on Einstein in the semis, and you performed great, after not playing for 24 hours. Congratulations on your 6 blue banners this season.

2056 We had a great time allying with you last year. You guys have an amazing program, and we were rooting for you on Einstein.

1405 I'm not sure that there's anyone left who remembers, but I was a mentor for 1405 during your rookie season, when I was at RIT. I remember watching the videos of your FLR defense. You did great.

987 Congratulations on long overdue Chairman's award. We've enjoyed playing with and against you. Maybe one of these years we can win together.

1197 Welcome to the ranks of South Bay teams making Einstein.

133, 230, 910, 1775 You guys were awesome in carver. We knew we were in trouble when 133 and 230 joined together, as you guys had such good fire power.

910 and 573 Thanks for letting us join your scouting alliance.

3476 3 Einstein appearances in 6 years is awesome. You've been on the hard side of 2 tough decisions. Keep it up. Thanks for letting us use and break your practice field. We couldn't have gotten our auto tuned without it.

294 Thanks for the strategy ideas on Einstein. It's really hard to see things from the field, and your perspective helped.

973 and 3925 Thanks for helping us qualify for the championships at Ventura. We had an awesome alliance and the strategies we used helped us at the Championship.

Personally, I would prefer that tiebreakers were not used. It would have been nice in 2010 (we missed our flight home from IRI after playing a 5 match semifinal, and many other ties in other playoff matches) but in any year with enough separation in scores, ties in eliminations should be settled with another match.