Two Chinese teams, Tsinghua University's Hephaestus and China Agricultural University's Mountain & Sea, battled each other in the adult size final at the Robo Cup Humanoid League in Brazil on Monday. In the end, Tsinghua won that match 5-3 to become the first Chinese team lifting the title in the 28-year history of the tournament.

Chinese teams showed dominance from the group stage onward. Tsinghua, powered by the domestically developed T1 humanoid robots with an accelerated evolution design, overwhelmed opponents with multiple clean-sheet victories, including 16:0, 9:0, and 12:0 triumphs over UT Austin Villa from the United States.

Three other Chinese teams also delivered impressive results, with Tsinghua's TH-MOS coming in second in the kid size category. According to Global Times, both Chinese and international teams, including those from Germany and the U.S., chose to use China-made humanoid robots such as the T1 and K1, underscoring the growing global influence of Chinese robotics. The German champions Boosted HTWK of the kid size event, relied on the K1 robots as well.

"These actions reflect actual model training and decision-making by the robot," CAU team leader Yang Shaoshuai said. "It wasn't just Tsinghua – we also defeated traditional powerhouse UT Austin Villa 9-0 in the semifinals. That result was due to our advantages in visual positioning, navigation, and decision-making, which stemmed from solid preparation. But Tsinghua had an even more advanced decision-making algorithm – they deserve the win."

"For the first time, a Chinese hardware platform, thanks to its performance and developer-friendly tools, became the go-to equipment for a top-tier global competition," said Cheng Hao, founder of Booster Robotics, the official hardware supplier for the Robo Cup. "China's robots have now become a core force on the world's competitive stage."