The Ann Arbor Competition was, in a word, awesome.
First of all, thanks to all those who made the event happen:
- Lisa, who again ran a great AA District and was helpful at every turn
- The venue staff, who were overall very gracious
- The volunteers, who were, like all Michigan events, awesome. Specific shout-outs to:
- Jeff and the rest of the refereeing crew, who calmly explained calls during highly stressful finals matches, and made the right calls the whole way through
- The FTAs and field crew who kept the event running smoothly!
- The judges, who were some of the friendliest to whom I've ever talked. The Chairman's judges specifically actually seemed pretty cool.
It was great to see Dean, Jon Dudas, and François Castaing at this awesome Michigan event!
Of course signing fests with Dean ensued.
To talk teams:
494 - What a deserving top pick! Besides great tube scoring and a blazing minibot, you're one team that's just out of this world! I hope we get to partner up again!
66 - How were you still around at the final pick?? You played tough defense, had some clutch defense and logo-finishings, played our strategy brilliantly in each match! While the red card was a low point, the defense played in the last twenty seconds of Finals match 3 may have won us that match. It was great to be Pink with you, and it was great to repeat with you!
The Finalists - From the beginning I thought this matchup could go either way. You made it really stressful. 4 minibots that would be first in any other match... Only one word for it: INTENSE.
573 - The missing link from last year's alliance.. You were all-around great at this event, and very deserving of the 3rd pick. You were up there on our list, just not quite there.. I hope we can pair up at States!
This event was just amazing.
It was stressful and awesome and challenging and great in all the right ways.
And I'm not sure what could even match it this year.
But we'll see, I suppose.