2014 Waterloo Regional

[KeeganP]

The self-righteous trolls of CD strike again.

I must applaud you; you people who art more gracious than me. It takes a certain kind of person to stand up on a soapbox and berate someone who has done so much good in this community for expressing their thoughts and for this I am truly in awe of you.

I have seen many people on this site be pulled apart by these most gracious trolls. You berate someone for posting something negative or that deviates from the norm about something or other. It's become so bad here that it's nearly impossible to post any kind of criticism on this forum. You have driven away so many knowledgeable and educated people and are slowly watering this place down to nothing more than a pink fuzzy spot on the internet to post your robot pictures and pat each other on the back.

It is impossible to live life by ignoring every distasteful situation or negative occurrence. It's just not possible. To try and do so is to look at the world with blinders on. The fact that you're still trying to protect your children from this fact of life is just bad parenting. They need to know that not everyone thinks the same way they do and not everything is happy and good. In life, people have opinions. Good or bad, their thoughts are their own and it is NONE of your business to slap their hand and tell them otherwise. CD is supposed to be a place for these discussions. Squelching anything that doesn't agree with the general consensus should be unacceptable. It is important to have other ways of looking at things and have an open mind and acknowledge the situations that might not be all rainbows and butterflies.

Karthik- I understand your decisions and although I'm going to miss your awesome introductions, I support you in whatever your choices may be. We will always have a spare hat for you!

^This. Very, very well said.

On the topic of Waterloo itself, I throughly enjoyed watching all of the matches that I had the chance to -- some truly amazing and inspiring teams built simply incredibly machines. It was a show to watch and I was compelled to smile just watching the matches from my desk. The level of competition was simply amazing. Thank you to all involved who made it possible for those of us at home to participate and enjoy.

[Sharven]

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all the volunteers and staff that made this event so great.

Referees, you guys have an incredibly tough job this year. I don't think anyone can doubt how seriously you take your job and how much you guys wanted to ensure the calls were made correctly. This was evident when we saw just how long you spend deliberating the calls in Semis 1-3.

Field reset, I am honestly amazed by the level of skill you guys possessed. The crew was always aware as to whom and where to get the ball back to. The regional couldn't have asked for a better field reset crew than what we had this past weekend.

Queuing was awesome. They got the teams out on the field on time so that we could follow the match schedule quite closely and they had a great system for getting robots on and off the field. It was flawless.

The inspectors were incredible. I don't know how they got everyone fully inspected by the end of Thursday. They did a great job, the teams were safe, we didn't have many robots being damaged or falling apart in the middle of the field so let that attest to the quality of inspectors and teams at the Waterloo regional. It easily shows just how much Tarjote does and how deserving of the Volunteer of the Year award he is.

Scorekeepers, huge shout out to you. You guys were amazing. You were never the people we were waiting for. You were ready to start the match before anyone else, and you knew exactly what you were doing. Your timing was flawless with the MC and that really added to the quality of the event.

Regional Committee and everyone else behind the scenes to make the regional as great as it was, THANK YOU. I don't think people often say thank you to you guys enough. You do all the planning for events like these and get things sorted out far in advance.

We had some of the best teams in FIRST. You were very respectful throughout the weekend and built some amazing robots. The levels of GP I saw over the weekend were second to none. You guys really brought an amazing regional to life. You were spirited and energetic even in the early hours in the morning. You guys came up with some great match strategies and brought very high levels of play. It's unfortunate that only a handful of teams qualify from this event. I really think there were so many more than that who deserve to go to championships in St. Louis. I wish you the best of luck in your remaining regionals, I'd love to see you guys there.

Parth, Liz, and James; a special thank you for helping out at this event. Having the number of FTA's that we did really added to the ease and flow of everything, from troubleshooting robots to keeping the event on schedule. I can easily say the more FTA's the merrier and you guys were pivotal in making Waterloo as good as it was.

John Hobbins, you are an incredible person. You are an amazing regional director. The expansion of FIRST Canada and the amount of rookies you are helping as well as the quality of these rookies proves that. I can honestly say that working with you is a great pleasure and I'd love to work with you more in the future. I am so very excited to see what you have planned for FIRST Canada in the near future because whatever it is, I know it will be great. You are a volunteer whose level of commitment and skills should be something others strive to one day attain.

Paul Copioli, I have been to the Waterloo regional a couple times and have seen you coach in the past. Your depth of knowledge for the game is truly amazing and it really adds to your ability as an announcer. Hearing you announce the play-by-play made the game easy to understand and follow, and gave many people who may not have spectated the game before a clear picture of what teams were doing and why they were doing it. I thank you again for making the trip up North.

Karthik Kanagasabapathy, you are an awe-inspiring individual. Your ability to MC is not just characterized by your vast knowledge of strategy or your understanding of the game, but also your personality and charisma that drives other people to strive for greatness. You not only helped make 1114 the HoF team it is, but helped others achieve their goals in FIRST and well beyond it. I hope you know that you have my utmost respect and the respect of everyone at the regional. Your MC-ing is the best I have seen. I, as well as everyone else I know, love the way you give detailed history between the competing teams. Knowing what teams’ history inside out in over a decade’s worth of FIRST is a really remarkable feature. I hope I don't see the end of the famous Karthik and Paul duo at Waterloo; it's one of the best parts of the weekend.

Thank you everyone for making the Waterloo regional as great as it could be. I can't wait for what will be in store for next year!

[jptn]

Can't believe it's been almost a month!

http://i.imgur.com/bg3sDAt.jpg (http://360.asecondglance.ca/2014-frcwaterloo)