[Chris Hibner]

It really saddens me to see this happen. I've worked with 1114 many times in the past as allies and as foes and they are a great team with a top notch structure.

It is apparent to me now that I am in the vast minority that I love to see engineering excellence be rewarded. There's nothing I like more than to see great robots win. Last year it took me about 3 hours to break out of my funk when 469 lost on Einstein (no offense to the winning alliance, I just grew attached to 469 with their creative design). I was the biggest WildStang fan this past weekend while watching the Wisconsin webcast, and if you do some searching you'll find out that I was (and still am) one of the biggest team 71 fans around.

It's natural to feel a little jealosy at times, but how you use that is what separates the successful from the pack. You can whine and blame and cry "woe is me", or you can channel that into a passion for improving and beating them on the field. People need to realize that they DO have the power to beat these teams by improving YOUR team rather than by tearing down those above. It just takes a lot less effort to attempt to destroy what's above you than to try and climb the hill.