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ROBOTS Garage 4451 Competes at World Championships

From Setback to Surge: Robotz Garage 4451 Shines on Robotics’ Biggest Stage
In the world of high school robotics, the lights shine brightest at the FIRST Robotics World Championship; and this year, Robotz Garage 4451 made sure the world noticed.
Representing Fountain Inn and Laurens, SC, the team earned their ticket to Houston after dominating the South Carolina state competition becoming state champions. There, they joined over 600 elite teams and 18,000 students from 45 states and 17 countries in a global showdown of engineering, programming, and teamwork.
Split into eight fiercely competitive divisions, the World Championship kicks off with two days of qualifying rounds. For 4451, day one was anything but smooth. After a rocky start, they found themselves ranked 62nd out of 75 teams in their division, an unfamiliar position for a team used to excellence.
Behind the scenes, the challenge was clear: the robot’s autonomous system, critical in the early stages of each match, had gone haywire during transport from South Carolina. Lead programmers Cole Gibbs, Lewis Arias, and Willem Nordhus discovered a miscommunication between the vision system, Meta goggles that map the field, and the robot’s "Path Finder" controls. The result? The robot believed it was in one place while it was actually somewhere else, leading to unpredictable acceleration and control issues.
But this team doesn’t fold.
Through tireless adjustments and fine-tuning of the robot’s control systems, the trio brought 4451 back to life, just in time for a second-day surge.
And what a comeback it was.
Winning all but one match on day two, Robotz Garage clawed their way up the rankings to finish 34th. More importantly, they proved to other teams they were a force worth aligning with when the playoff selection process (akin to a fantasy football draft) began.
In a strategic move, the No. 2-ranked team from Brooklyn, NY selected 4451 to join their alliance, alongside a skilled squad from Israel. Together, they battled through 13 of the 14 playoff rounds before narrowly falling short of a final berth, losing by just 10 points.
But perhaps the most inspiring moment wasn’t on the field, it was in the stands.
Once it became clear that Robotz Garage 4451 was the only team from South Carolina to advance to the playoffs, every other SC team rallied behind them, packing the stands and cheering them on. The show of unity and pride exemplified the very best of student sportsmanship and highlighted the incredible character of South Carolina’s robotics community.

While the run ended just shy of the finals, the accolades speak volumes:
One of only five South Carolina teams to reach Worlds
The only SC team to make the playoffs
One of just 24 playoff teams in their division out of 75 teams in their division
One of only 30 teams worldwide to qualify for the playoffs every year for the past decade, out of thousands of teams
In a tournament teeming with global talent, Robotz Garage 4451 didn’t just show up, they inspired. And for a program rooted in grit, collaboration, and constant INNovation, the future is as strong as their drive train.
 

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