Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

You'll always be part of our family, Rick!

Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

Slowly recovering from this weekend, but it was such a blast.

Congratulations to 558 on the Chairmans Award, it's so well deserved!

1735, I was so happy to see you guys win Engineering Inspiration, also very well deserved.

To 558, 999, and 195, congratulations on becoming District Champions.

To all the teams, thanks for being so great with our crazy traffic flow. It was a little complicated to make things work with the gym, but I think we got it to work pretty well, and that's largely due to the great cooperation of the teams.

Thanks to all my fellow volunteers for coming out and spending your weekend at the event. I enjoyed working with all of you. I want to give a shout out to my queueing crew, Diane, Charlee, Amanda, and Gerri, for being so great this weekend. We had some interesting challenges, but these guys made it work.

Lastly to the entire planning committee, (Rob, Karen, Kasia, Stacey, Sandra, Jack, Kathie, Bob, and Misty) guys thanks for your tireless work on this event. It came out amazing, and you all should be so proud of yourself.

See you guys in Hartford in a few days. :p

Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

The toughest part about that Chairman's Award was the fact that someone was cutting onions in the stands near 558/on the field while it was being read out. At least that was the excuse I'm going to use ;)

Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

Eric,

This was such a great moment for our team, that I think most of us would own up to it.
We had such a great time this past weekend in Southington, and for it to end the way it did... well it was amazing.


As always we caught up with old friends, made some new ones, and came home with a lot of great memories - and even more motivation to expand our program.

Thank you to all that were involved in making this such a great event.

Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

In one of the last matches, I'm not sure of the number. It looked like 175 was pinned for longer than 5 seconds. Was I mistaken? Perhaps the two robots were dancing around in the same direction.

Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

Even though I was only able to referee for Sunday (my team was competing at RIDE), I want to congratulate everyone on all their amazing successes at Southington! I only heard positive things about the whole event from everyone I have talked to! I know we as a ref crew definitely had some hard calls to make as the matches were very intense. Congrats 195, 558 and 999 on the win, as well as 230, 2836 and 4055 on the finalist. Also, congrats to everyone on 558 for the District Event Chairman's win. I know first hand how much everyone on your team does, and it is a well deserved honor that was given to you here. Also, congrats to my dad, Jack in the Hat, for receiving Volunteer of the Year! Even though my father was recognized for his outstanding efforts in the FIRST community this year, he by far is not the only volunteer to go above and beyond. Thank you to all of the volunteers this year! Out of all the years I have been involved in FIRST, since 2000 as an FLL kid, I know this year has been difficult on all of us in New England. Just like we endure the long winters, we will persevere through it! I am so excited to see so many new faces on these volunteer crews!

Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

The refs reset our minds after each match, so I can't say that I remember any particular instant anymore, and I may not have been watching that area of the field. But I will say that we had all hands on deck (6 refs + 1 head ref) during the finals, and we were watching very carefully for pinning and other penalties. Most likely if it appeared to be pinning but wasn't called that way, 175 was considered to have a way out or wasn't trapped or wasn't backing away when they had the chance or something like that. Again, I can't pick out this particular instance in my mind, but I promise we were being as attentive as possible.

Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

I think the refs absolutely crushed it at this event. Fantastic job done by all expecially in light of the 11th hour rule update.

I was not always happy with the way the chips fell on some calls, but after reading through the rule book after each - I agreed that I would have called it the same way.

REALLY appriciate the effort - this game demands it.

Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

Where can I start? First off I'd like to thank everyone for their positive remarks and especially for comments from our two alliance partners teams 2836 and 230 and all three of the winning alliance teams, 195, 558 and 999. We never thought we would make it as far as we did but our partners proved to be all we expected when we picked them and then some.

The matches were all great, the competition was fierce and the CyberKnights ran a great event!!!!

Thanks to all the teams, volunteers, judges and everyone else that made this weekend happen.

Not only was the two ball hitting each other over the truss unexpected, what about the ball on top of the truss wobbling back and forth?

Also we would like to thank team 181 Birds of Prey for welding our pickup arm together the weekend before Southington. We could not have does this well without your help. Thank You, Thank You!!!!

Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

Gino and I left for Aruba about 8 hours after the event finished. We had some good travel time to contemplate the day. Now, finally rested and back on line:)

To our friends on 558, it was an honor working with you. the 195-558 combo this year was fantastic from both a robot perspective and how our team members and mentors work together. We loved working with you guys....FINALLY! haha.

To our friends on 999: we know the struggles you had this season. You deserved this win for your hard fought battle through not only the matches but build season itself. "never give up" should be your new team motto because you showed how persevering through adversity really pays off. You executed the game strategy to perfection!

4055, 230, 2836: Your alliance gave us an incredible fight. Fighting through your defensive play gave us quite a battle. Boston should be an awesome ride! We hope to see you all there!

558: Of all the events of the day, we couldn't be prouder and happier of 558 winning the Chairman's award. So well deserved for team that gives their all to the community and youth.

To the volunteers: THANK YOU FOR MAKING THE SOUTHINGTON EVENT AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE. Having never run a FIRST event before, I was a total novice and you all taught me a lot about how it's done and the true dedication it takes to "make the magic". Hoping to work with you all again next year......hmmm good reason to buy a new gown!

Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

As the head of media for Team 195 I have just about every match recorded in HD from our personal camera with just a static full field view from our stands. I am working on getting those uploaded, but homework has piled up and finding time is difficult. For anyone who sees this, keep checking back on this thread and I will update you when all the matches are up

Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

Kyle, thanks so much for all your hard work! Can't wait for the video. But homework comes first :)

Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

If you have a big chuck of video and need to cut the matches out, I wrote some python scripts to make it easier. Shoot me a PM if you need a hand getting started.

Re: [NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event
 

So far it looks like Kyle has just about all the Team 195 matches up.

You can probably check on his youtube page to check when the others come up as well.
http://www.youtube.com/user/KBFRC195