A Bay area robotics team is heading to a world championship after back-to-back regional tournaments.

After three regional competitions this month, you might think the robotics team from East Lake High School is ready for a nice break. Instead, it is enthusiastically getting ready for "First Championship," a world tournament.

"Every week we would go for four days from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., including weekends for the full day. I honestly haven't counted up the hours," said team member Adam Sellers.

Sellers and his teammates say it's all worth it to be on Team 79 KRUNCH.

"Not only do you make friends, not only do you learn how to make a really cool robot and get to travel to these events that just blow your mind away, you get the experience for your major," said team member Allie Ghisson.

The team built its robot for the competition within a six-week deadline. Team members aren't allowed to touch it until the tournament. It will be shipped to Houston.


About 20 students from KRUNCH will head to Houston for the April 19 competition.

"That's six weeks to design, implement, build, wire, code, test, break, rebuild, re-code, re-wire the robot," said team member Henry Sloan.

KRUNCH has been around since 1998 and went to the world championship each year until 2014. This year will be the team's comeback.

And for seniors like Sellers, it will be their last hurrah. "I've seen Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, and Alabama, and I'm about to go to Texas, which I'm very excited about," said Sellers.

They will compete against 30,000 students and nearly 1,400 teams from more than 39 countries.

About 20 students from KRUNCH will be headed to Houston for the competition on April 19.

The team is raising funds for the trip. For more information on the team, please visit www.teamkrunch.com or contact team79krunch@gmail.com.