Re: 2012 FRC Arizona Regional
 

Looks like AZ was a good event this year. Congratulations to 610, 842, and 1212 on the regional victory, and to 2486 on another Chairman's award. Hope you all do well at Championships!

Congratulations to 498 on making it to the Finals. That makes twice now, one of these days we'll get our first regional victory!

Glad to hear the plans are in place for a Tucson regional next year. Arizona FIRST has come a long way since I was a freshman in high school!

Re: 2012 FRC Arizona Regional
 

There are moments in your FRC career where you say to yourself "this is why we do FRC." Arizona provided plenty of those moments, although not for the reasons you might expect.

Not to downplay the robots, but I don't wish to dwell too much on the competition, or the fact that we were finally able to break a 10 year regional dry spell this past weekend by riding the coat-tails of our partners through the eliminations. To finally win a regional was amazing, but...

To be honest... after 842, 1212 and 610 lost F1, to 2486, 498 and 4146, in our subsequent alliance huddle, I wasn't even a tad bit nervous, anxious or upset. Why? Because as long as we tried our best, I would've been more than happy to see the opposing teams win this regional.

An alliance good enough to hit a 36-pt autonomous, where all 3 robots hit 2 shots each, deserves to win a regional (QF 4-1). And saying that doesn't do justice to the quality of those teams off the field either.

The most important aspect of our time in Arizona this past weekend had nothing to do with robots.

I had the pleasure of speaking and interacting with an incredible number of students, mentors and volunteers while at the competition. I really should name them all, as well as their respective teams, but the list would simply be too long. To quote one of our student team presidents (Patrick White), the enduring statement of the weekend was:

"No seriously... EVERYONE was just... so... freakin'... nice!!!"

It was a moment to re-ground ourselves, and to re-evaluate what we truly enjoy so much about FIRST.

Canada is a very different place to compete in than Arizona, and there were many many things we experienced in AZ that I would love to bottle up and take home with us. That's not to say we don't love Canada (we do!!!), but as I talked to team members on the plane ride home about how to take the "next step" as a team, the conversation focused entirely on how we could be more like the teams here - particularly in how they interact off-the-field.

There are so many teams in AZ that exemplify what we want to become, but I have to single out Crush 1011 in particular.

I don't know if I've seen a team exhibit the level kind of pure, genuine, unbridled enjoyment of FRC as 1011. They were simply a pleasure to be around, all day, every day. It is a special team that can make those AROUND them enjoy the FRC experience that much more - regardless of how your robot is doing on the field. That's inspiration, and it's a skill that deserves as much attention as our ability to hit shots in hybrid, or triple balance a bridge, IMHO.

I'm glad I had a chance to experience the importance of that first-hand.

Thanks Arizona!

Re: 2012 FRC Arizona Regional
 

Congrats to all the teams who competed in AZ! It was a truely memorable competition for so many reasons. It was very cool to have so many diverse teams at the event, it made it very interesting!

Congrats to 610, 842, and 1212. You guys were certainly the best of the best and it was great to compete with each of you! You guys certainly deserved the win and we are so excited to see all of you in St. Louis! I'm going to try to convince my team that we should go to the Toronto regional next year :)

Congrats also to Tecbot on Engineering Inspiration, and the Sabercats for the Rookie All Star Award! We're looking forward to seeing you at Championships also!!

And of course we have to give a huge thanks to the Cobra Commanders and Sabercats for being such great alliance partners! The CocoCobraCats would not have been the same without any one of us :) We got it next year right?

Once again, congrats to all teams, Everyone played a part in making the AZ regional a success. Good luck to anyone competing in another regional or Championships!!

-Team 2486 The CocoNuts

Re: 2012 FRC Arizona Regional
 

Thanks Freddie! We're tryin'! We hope to go above and beyond next year, to really put our name on the map :)

Best of luck in St. Louis! If I don't make it, I hope to be able to cheer you on on Einstein from my dorm room!

Re: 2012 FRC Arizona Regional
 

Congratulations Teams 610, 842 and 1212!

610: Nice to have that monkey off your backs eh?

842: Back to back regional wins is pretty amazing. I wish I could say I've been part of something like that.

1212: 8 years since you last won a regional, it must be nice to have that monkey off your backs as well.

After hearing so many great stories out of this regional, I really want to attend it next year.

-Nick

Re: 2012 FRC Arizona Regional
 

How is this?

Re: 2012 FRC Arizona Regional
 

Hi All.

Congratulations to the 842, 610, and 1212 alliance, was a great to saw you play and recover to win the regional.

842 and 610 besides other great arizona regional participant teams have set our target as a team for the next years, so we will work harder to get the "A" class performance same as you.

Coconuts you are awesome, we enjoyed your price, your deserve it!!

Crush as always we are a great buddies and hopefully we can attend the Tucson regional next year.

We appreciate to all Arizona teams the great support for us and we will be looking get back next year.

This year we where planing be part of the top eigth but we did not perform as well as planned (Important is that we got the lessons and we will improve for the championship).

Hope 2013 we finally get the regional at Mexico and all of you are more than welcome to visit us.

Best Regards
Fausto Vazquez.

Re: 2012 FRC Arizona Regional
 

I thought you might be interested to hear that after talking with some members of team 610, our vice president said "....the Canadians are just SO nice"

Hope to see you here in AZ next year