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2014 Tech Valley Regional
There wasn't an "official" thread before, so here it is. It's hard to believe that the first ever Tech Valley regional is under a week away! I know that 2791 is excited to have an official "home" event and we're ready for some stiff competition. Also, the last I heard the event was short on volunteers, so if you're in the area please consider helping a new regional become a success. The team list:
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20 The Rocketeers 2053 TigerTronics |
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I'm looking forward to the new event and venue and seeing the teams that we no longer get to play with in NE.
I'll be one of the Game Announcers for the weekend, so if you have anything you'd like us to know about your team (or if we pronounce anything wrong) feel free to come find me. Good Luck to all the teams! |
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Be careful getting there everyone. Looks like the weather is going to take a turn for the worst.
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Team 379 is looking forward to attending the Tech Valley Regional, but we also heard the weather was going to get bad for the trip there. The 7-8 hour bus ride from Ohio should be fun!!
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T-Rx, Team 145 is chomping at the bit, pun intended.
Can't wait to get to Troy and see what our 'bot can do, see some old friends and make some new ones! Safe travels, late is better than not at all! http://youtu.be/EUtSwMH9ZFQ |
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Team 3193, Falco Tech, will also be heading up from Ohio. It's gonna be great...but that trek East on I-90 is not looking pretty. C'mon man!!
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Team 3990 Tech for Kids, from Montréal (Québec, Canada), will be heading to Troy on Thursday morning, starting at 3 am. It's a 4 hours drive from Montréal, not counting the time spent at the border, unpacking and packing everything.
Unpacking a robotics team truck at night and during the snowstorm, that will be interesting. :eek: |
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This should be an awesome regional. I'm really excited to see how well all of the capital region teams will perform, since many of them have a practice bot for the first time!
Good luck, and we'll see you at the competition! :D |
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So happy this regional got set up i was gonna look into going to the long island regional which is 5 hours away.( being I am an alumni from a long island team and came up here to start a team).
Good luck to everyone at the competition can't wait to see everyone there. |
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Who will be the MC for this regional? I have been wondering this for a while.
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On a side note, how are teams dealing with the winter storm coming in on Wednesday? We are still determining if we can leave early to beat it or head out early Thursday. |
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See you all on Friday, drive safe! Quote:
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Larry,
It looks like our weather here is changing by the hour. The latest has a snow/rain mix for morning, rain during the day and back to snow in the evening. Everyone have a safe trip into town. -Bernie |
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Team 1708 can't wait to come to the inaugural Tech Valley Regional!
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Looking forward to meeting Team 4975 from Istanbul!
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Good luck to all of our friends competing this weekend at Tech Valley! 3467 was very interested to attend but it wasn't in the cards this year. Hopefully in the next year or two we can make a trip out to Tech Valley! |
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With most of Rochester Area school closed tomorrow, some of Team 340 is making the trip up tonight (Tuesday) with the rest of the team coming down Thursday morning.
Aside from the weather, 340 is looking forward to competing with some awesome teams at this inaugural event, we hope to see you there! |
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Excited for tomorrow!
If any teams need some help getting their robots together or anything on Thursday, don't hesitate to stop by 20's pits! |
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The Arctic Warriors (Team #174) are excited to be attending the first inaugural NY Tech Valley Regional! It will be great to see some old friends and make some new ones! Drive safe tomorrow everyone!
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1493 is so excited to not have a 4+ drive and can sleep in our own beds at night. I cant wait to meet some of the central and western NY teams. Just hope that everyone gets to RPI safe and has no major delays.
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358 just hit the road and hopefully will be there in time to drop off the robot tonight.
Looking forward to it all! |
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Well the weather certainly has taken a turn for the worse hasn't it?
Be careful driving to Troy, even if you're only a few minutes away, like us. Snow, hail, and freezing rain. |
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Who is streaming this event?
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You might also want to check out http://thebluealliance.com/gameday tomorrow. I imagine the webcast link will be available there too. |
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Why was there just a huge delay in calculating that score? I just tuned in now unfortunately.
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Hi!
My team and I had an amazing time at competition this weekend! We thank 174 and 2228 for having fun at eliminations! Congrats to teams 250, 20, 229, 1126, 5030, 1493, and 340. WE may not have won, but we had so much fun at the first FIRST Robotics Competition at RPI! I hope you knew we were in the house! ~Team 3044 |
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Wow, what an event! I'd like to extend my congratulations to the Regional Planning Committee (Paul Schoch, Mary Burke, Rose Barra, Nancy Castler, and Ana Martinez, just to name a few) for organizing what was unequivocally the best regional I have ever attended. I'd also like to thank all of the volunteers who made the event happen, especially those who kept the matches on time and controversy free (including the FTA Liz Smith.) In a year when pedestal errors and field faults are the norm, having a replay-free regional was a remarkable feat. I can't wait to come back and do it all again next year.
That being said, congratulations to the champions 1126, 20, and 229; the winners of the Chairman's Award 340; and the winners of the Engineering Inspiration award 1511. You all earned it and good luck in St. Louis. We're looking forward to making some repairs (boy does our robot need them) and heading to the Finger Lakes Regional in a few weeks. Hopefully the defense there will be a little friendlier to our claw. |
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This was a wonderful event. For an inaugural event, it was really well organized, it flowed smoothly every second, and certainly felt like it was an event that was around for much longer than three days. I'd like to thank the volunteers for their hard work to produce a flawless regional for us to compete in. I'd like to congratulate teams 250, 3990, and 145 for a great display of skill both on and off of the field; it was certainly a blast playing against them! Also, team 340 for earning the Chairman's Award, and 1511 for Engineering Inspiration. I hope to see this regional be available for teams to compete in for many years to come, and wish everyone the best of luck in future regionals!
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Wow. What an amazing event.
First off I'd like to thank all the volunteers that made this event possible. I'd also like to thank Frank Merrick for coming and seeing what the capital region is made of! The event was run so smoothly. The only problem (and I think quite a few team had this problem on Thursday) was the balls being slightly over-inflated throughout, but I think everyone learned to deal with that and it taught us some lessons about how to design an intake. The referees were consistent and fair, and despite the match-killer tech fouls being still prevalent, the referees called them evenly and according to the rules. We were taught a lesson on Friday about our catching mechanism (that it sometimes catches too well), and we learned from that too. (I encourage every team to find some way to prevent the ball from falling from the sky into your robot). Thanks to Team 1126 Sparx for selecting us and forming that crazy alliance. Your cannon is absolutely frightening, and I can't wait to see you guys at FLR! Thanks to Team 229 Division by Zero for your crazy drivetrain and passing abilities. With your collector fixed for elims, you were the perfect third partner for us! Congratulations to Team 340 on your RCA. You guys have an extremely professional team and a consistent robot. We hope to see you guys go farther in elims at Finger Lakes. Congrats to Team 1511 on your Engineering Inspiration Award. You guys had a great robot and one of the smartest drive teams in the whole arena. Your spirit and professionalism filled every room you were in. "I believe that Robots Rock!" We'll see you at Finger lakes as well! Congratulations to the finalist alliance of 250, 3990, and 145. The instant your alliance came together I knew you'd be one of the toughest alliances in the place. 250's half-match T-Bone on 1126 shut us down for Finals-1, and made us very afraid for what could happen in Finals-2. 3990 had one of the best shooters in the place and a downright gorgeous robot. I only wish you could have played in Finals at full strength. 145's hammer was making shots all day, and their smart drivers knew how to skid around defense with their mecanum drive. Good luck to 3990 in Quebec, and we'll see 250 at Finger Lakes! Congratulations to Team 5030, The Second Mouse, on your Rookie All-Star Award. Your smart strategy took you all the way to a number one seed and two smart picks. We'll see you at Championships! One last shout-out and that's to the Rookie Inspiration Award winners of 5236, Man-O-War Robotics. Besides building an incredible robot for rookies and making an impressive showing in eliminations, they also had an extremely professional team who really "got" the spirit of FIRST in their rookie year. They also had an extremely smart drive team who was fantastic to work with. They delivered on everything they could have, and be ready for them to be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years. |
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I would like to say on behalf of team 5030 all the kids loved the event. We had a lot of fun and all the teams, refs, judges and volunteers were so inviting and helpful. We did really well and there were many great bots. To everyone going to FLR i wish all of you luck and to everyone going to st louis can't wait to see you there. For now were gonna work on getting the offensive side of our bot going and making the drive train better. ( during the quarter finals we lost all power and speed while moving i think we blew a cim.) Can't wait to go back to nytv next year.
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Don't want to repeat everything above….but, AWESOME regional, fantastic volunteers, great judges, referees and field staff!!!!
With Angry Eric as an MC, we have been to the Finals two years in a row. He may be Team 145's good luck charm. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. Great to see the rookie teams doing so well. Nice to see some old friends from FLR and make some new ones from other states and countries. Congrats to 1126, 20 and 229. Super alliance, excellent strategy, flawless execution. Thanks to 250 and 3990 for adding 145 to your alliance. I think we made the Finals pretty exciting!!! Good luck to everybody competing in another regional or going on to St. Louis. Already looking forward to the New York Tech Valley Regional next year. |
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The Arctic Warriors had a wonderful time at the inaugural NY Tech Valley Regional! Congratulations and thank you to the Regional Planning Committee for creating this event. The regional ran smoothly and efficiently.
Thank you to the referees, FTA, and volunteers. It was such a pleasure to watch the referees and FTA patiently work through any problems that arose and talk to all students kindly that had a question on the match. The volunteers also worked with the teams well and directed teams where to go with a smile at all times. Thank you to teams 3044 and 2228 for partnering with us in eliminations. It was a hard fought battle and it was a pleasure working with the both of you! Congratulations to the Regional Champions 1126, 20, and 229, Chairman's Award winner 340, and Engineering Inspiration award winner 1511. It was wonderful to work with you throughout the competition. Overall we had a wonderful time! Looking forward to coming back in the future! |
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Hey all, Digby Baker-Porazinski from 5236 here.
As this was Man O' War's first year and first regional, we would just like to thank everyone who attended for your generosity, kindness, and willingness to lend a hand. There were several instances where, without the unabated help from our fellow teams, we would have been dead in the water. Specifically, we'd like to thank Team Rice, our alliance captains, for selecting us to compete with you in the quarterfinals and semifinals, all the way up to the last match before championships. We really can't begin to express our gratitude for this opportunity. In addition, we thank you and Team 358 for supporting us whenever we needed help. Nice job on those bumpers ;) We'd also like to thank the Rocketeers, Team 20, for your constant assistance throughout the competition and the weeks preceding it. Without your aid, we might not have had a functioning robot. Your class on the field exceeded our expectations, and it was a pleasure to compete with and against you. The same can be said for team 250, who helped teach our novice programmers. Congratulations to all who attended! You can expect to see Man O' War next year :) Until then, thanks for the ride! |
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What a great job done by all those that worked to organize the event. I love the venue. Just need to work out some parking issues and add some more food options so people do not have to wait 30 minutes for a cup of coffee.
1493 had our best regional to date- Kudos to the current and former students for writing the essay that earned Paul Schoch the WFA. I have never meet a nicer man who would give anyone the shirt off his back. Very proud of our students and the hard work they put into the robot. After Thursday I do not think any of our 3 mentors touched the robot or had to tell the students to do anything. They handled Friday and Sat almost on their own. I think we were much better then the 24th ranked team but that is the nature of the beast this year with having to rely on partners so much. I can see how scouting is so important this year. Could never figure out why our auto worked 100% on practice field and then was about 50% on the field. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Hope to make a few improvements (2 ball auto) for FLR and looks forward to seeing everyone again. Congrats to all the local teams for representing the area so well. Team 20 once you got your robot dialed in on Friday you were the class of the regional IMO. 250 probably played some of the smartest matches all weekend and used great strategy to come out on top very often. 3044 I am so impressed how far your team has come, congrats on the team spirit award. 2791 I hope you can fix your arm issues, having seen you at the practice field and how great it was working. I can only hope others get to see it at FLR. Lastly I would like to thank 379 and 3003 for selecting us to partner with. That second match really showed what we could do. If only we could have repeated it for the 3rd match. Best of luck to both of you |
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Many, many thanks to everyone at Tech Valley, from the volunteers to the teams, students and mentors: your warm welcome has melted our hearts and we were happy and blessed to be part of this inaugural event and be able to meet incredible teams.
Kudos to 250 and 145, best alliance partners. Going through finals was exciting, but very sorry to let you guys down because of our catapult failure. Timeouts weren't enough and we insisted on calling the backup team to replace us, but 250 refused. I stand behind my students: you guys should have called a backup team. Congratulations to 20, 1126 and 229 for this well-deserved regional win. You guys were fantastic. 340 is an inspiration to us. Thank you 1511 for helping us with tools. Thank you to all who tried to speak French to us, it made us feel at home. We were in awe and admiration in front of so many great and well-established teams - 20, 340, 358, 1126, to name a few - and competing against you all was a great honour. We definitely learned a lot. |
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Does anyone have any videos of matches? That would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
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Great thank you...
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358 had a blast at the first Tech Valley Regional!
Great thanks to WFFA awardee Paul Schoch and committee for such a well run first year event. FIRST teams are always so helpful. Teams from all over lent us help, from the Rookie All-Stars team 5030 (ranked #2) who 3-D printed a part for us, to our pit partners: 340, 250, 20, 379, the list goes on. We appreciate each and every one of you! This competition was hard. Thanks to Southold Team 870 for choosing us, and to our partners Cambridge Team 5236 the Rookie Inspiration winners. We worked well together. That change out of all our wheels in the semi's with seconds to spare was incredible. Congratulations to 145,250,3990 who bested us in three very close semi-final matches. We're sorry the wear and tear from those very tough semi's probably made it more difficult for you to be fully operational in the finals. Kudos to the winning alliance 20, 1126, 229. Much thanks to the field staff/crew and refs. You took great effort to get the scores right and you did a terrific job keeping the balls in play. We know we may have stressed the refs out a bit maintaining clean defensive play. P.S. That terrific Mentors Lounge was visited constantly by our team mentors. Quiet, coffee, baked treats,... Good place to sew Turkish bumpers! Thanks to Team 20 for organizing and running that. |
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Congratulations to the winning alliance of 1126, 20, and 229! Not only were you a great alliance but you were very gracious for taking a time out when we needed to fix a robot on our alliance. Also congratulations to all the teams that won awards this weekend! Congratulations to 340 on their Chairman's Award win! |
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Super cool event great teams, great people.
my only complaint: The place was too small for the number of teams there, and the event is only going to grow. |
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WOW*10^250th POWER!!! <-- That is all I can really say about the inaugural FIRST Tech Valley Regional.
A very special THANKS to the regional planning committee, whose tireless efforts did not go unnoticed. It is because of the hard work and late nights of both the regional planning committee and those who stepped up and volunteered that this event was so successful. I would also like to take a moment and congratulate Paul Schoch on his WFA. He does so much in the area for FIRST and is an invaluable asset to our local FIRST community. He completely embodies the values of FIRST and the award couldn't have gone to a better person! Congratulations again! And how can I forget the other event staff and volunteers!? We were so lucky to snag some of the best FIRST has to offer in the way of event staff and volunteers. I have always LOVED FLR because of the teams and staff, and many of those who make that event so great found their way to the Tech Valley; even in the face of horrible weather and the shadow cast by the very nature of staffing a first year event. Liz: I always feel at ease knowing you'll be our FTA. Things seem to run better, and when they don't, you get things back online fast! Thanks! Dante: Being head Ref, you must know all of the rules forwards and backwards. You must answer *uninformed* questions during drive team meetings, and you must fight with people on calls you make. In the face of raw emotion, excitement and adrenaline, you manage to keep a calm head and call a fair game. I don't envy your position, but I wouldn't want anyone else. Thanks! Rob: You manage to wear many hats ( LRI, CSA, FTAA, everything else!?). You, like Liz, help teams wrangle the unruly mess of technology that can bog down teams at these events. Thanks! Queuers: Koko Ed, Bobby D and Paul Kane. You guys did an excellent job keeping teams where they needed to be and the event on schedule. Thanks! **There are too many people to name you all, but I THANK each and every one of you who made this event as awesome as it was!! On to the competition: Is it me, or was this competition nothing like what anyone expected a week 3 regional to be like! The matches were just fierce and most matches were WITHOUT penalties! :yikes: I would like to congratulate Team 340 GRR on their RCA. Your submission video was inspiring and looked fantastic. You guys not only set the bar, but raise it even higher every year! I would also like to congratulate Team 1511 Rolling Thunder on your REI. You guys were like our personal hardware store in the pits and you guys were constantly checking in on us to see if you could do anything! oh, a quarter twenty nut, sure take 3. some loop for our hook, heres a foot! It was fantastic competing with you at TVR and I cannot wait to see you guys at FLR! Team 1126 Sparx, Team 20 The Rocketeers, Team 229 Division By Zero. Thank you for making the eliminations so exciting. 20, from the moment I saw your robot fire that ball at the practice field, I knew we were in trouble. That feeling was bolstered by our THREE matches against each other in qualification matches. You guys are tough and your drive team is smart. (needless to say I would have been happier being with you than against you!) That not being in the cards, I knew we were all in trouble when you were selected by Team 1126. My heart sank, but my competitive nature flared and I knew that your alliance was the alliance I wanted to compete against the most! Adding 229 to your alliance only further strangthened your position and I think I can speak for everyone at the regional when I say that your alliance was downright scary! Congratulations on winning the 2014 Tech Valley Regional and I cannot wait to compete with all of you at FLR!! Team 3990 Tech for Kids and Team 145 T-Rex Thank you both for excepting our invitation to play together! You guys were a fantastic fit to our strategy and I think it is safe to say that we gave the number 1 seeded alliance a run for their money!! Taking it to three matches, we were in the fights of our lives! In all of my history with FIRST, I can safely say that I have not had that much fun in a long time. We were the scrappy underdogs as the number 3 seeded alliance going up against the Goliath's of 1126, 20 and 229. They were hard hitting matches, and it was very much an unstoppable force colliding with an immovable object. Team 3990: Your strategy team was brilliant. Your robot was stunning. Your Drive team downright amazing! Your offense with our defense seemed like a sure-fire combination. As the coach for 250, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being such a great alliance partner. Quote:
I have been asked by many people about this, so I suppose I should say something about it. "Why did we not take our time-out before the second elimination match?" I have heard this a million times. For those who do not know, we tried to call the time out, but as per section 5.5.6 of the tournament rules, we could not. As a result of the back to back matches, there was a Field Timeoutcalled to allow for a proper reset of the field and robots. Because of this, we could not use our timeout as it would have caused a back to back timeout and this is not permitted by the rules. I would also like to touch on the subject of calling for the BACKUP Team. Team 4203 was the next robot and was ready to go. I know them well, and they would have been a fantastic team and robot to play with. They had switched over from Macanum wheels to regular wheelchair wheels and were ready to go! That being said, I was extremely happy with how we were playing together, and although we lost our second match, I was confident our strategy together would perform admirably for our third and final match. Waiting to the last second, we called our TIMEOUT. Your technicians swarmed your robot and it looked like you were making progress. I really wanted to give you guys as much time as possible as our alliance had played so many matches together I was unsure if calling in the BACKUP team would actually help or hurt us. ( we all knew our roles by that point, we had played 8 matches together and subbing for the very last match seemed questionable). Furthermore I wasn't 100% sure of your robot status until there was far less than 120 seconds left of that TIMEOUT. As per rule T20, I couldn't have called in the other team even if I wanted to. It's tough to speculate, and hindsight can be a cruel mistress, But even if there was enough time to call in the BACKUP, I am not convinced that it would have been the best choice for the alliance. I stand by our call and although we didn't take home the gold, I am proud of what our alliance accomplished together! Team 145: I would also like to thank you for accepting our call to arms for the elimination matches! Your drive team was a pleasure to work with during our 2 V 3 match on Friday (which we won!) and you delivered the same tenacity! (SQUIRREL!!!) You guys ran around the other alliances and performed perfectly on your part of the strategy. Nothing was greater than watching you and 3990 "Make out" and pass the ball from one bot to the other! Your drive team brought humor and concise planning to our alliance, alleviating the stress of the situation and providing great insight. I hope to have the opportunity to work with your team again in the future! There are things left unsaid. I know I have covered a lot, but I know I have missed much as well. I want to thank everyone who volunteered, helped out, attended, competed and and fought the elements to be there. This was the first FIRST Tech valley regional, but It will not be the last. Thanks again for helping start what I can only hope will become a great hallmark of the Tech Valley!! |
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Also, just another shout out to all the amazing teams we battled it out with. What a great experience and we'll see everyone next year. |
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While we're still working on getting our videos up (have patience, people, there's a process that we need to go through with every single match video. They're in the wrong format and a bunch of other stuff), Tech Valley FIRST has posted the match videos from the webcast on their site here: http://www.techvalleyfirst.org/index.php?page=webcast
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A huge thanks to all the countless hours of students, mentors, teachers, parents, and volunteers. The efforts everyone put in made me constantly forget that this was Tech Valley's inaugural year -- there were no hiccups to be seen; only energy, enthusiasm, and exuberance from all.
Be sure to check out the Tech Valley Highlight video and make sure to share it with your friends! |
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