Australia are world champions... in robot soccer

Australia upset Germany in the final of the 19th annual RoboCup games in China on Wednesday to take home the coveted title of "best robot soccer team in the world."

Yes, there is such a thing as robot soccer, and yes, apparently it has already existed for 19 years. No, we did not know about this before. [bows head in shame].

300 teams from 47 counties participated in the RoboCup games, and all of them used the same robots. The difference lies in how each team decides to program the robots, configuring how they communicate to one another on the pitch. In the end, Australian team New South Wales University were crowned champions. Check it out: