[fuzzwaz]

Before I give you all my thoughts, I would like to congratulate the championship winners, and especially 359- every time I was able to visit your pit during the championship I left in awe. You guys truly deserve it.

I was disappointed in a lot of things... But It was also extremely fun because I love being part of the FIRST community. Instead of going on about all the things I liked and disliked, I just want to talk about one thing.

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Friday afternoon, my team was approached by a ref and told us that there were rumors going around that said that this year's 2011 chairmans award was going to be presented during the concert (AKA in a few hours). Rumors are rumors. I didn’t know what to think of it, so I didn’t worry much about it. I also had some MAJOR issues with that rumor for a lot of reasons.. Including...

-Some teams will not be attending the concert for various reasons. I know of a few teams personally who had scouting meetings or just didn’t want to go. Thankfully I am positive that all of 359 was there to accept the award, otherwise I would have been even more disappointed if they decided to reveal the winner at the concert and the team they choose being nowhere in sight.

-The judging of the award was altered to be ready for the concert. All presentations were held on Thursday, and the final decision was made before Friday night. So for the teams that were curious, that’s why it seemed as if question asking was light this year. ALTHOUGH, I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT THEY WOULD HAVE COME TO THE SAME CONCLUSION EVEN WITH THE REGULAR JUDGING STYLE. I'm just noting that they even adjusted the way the judges had to prepare for this award (and awards in general) all for the concert.

-I think the number is 52? 52 teams compete for the chairmans award at the world championship? (or 50, 51, correct me please). I don't know how many of those teams knew about this rumor, if any. My team knew just solely because a ref of a team friend, and warned us to go. I heard a few other teams heard about it, and I also heard a lot of people did not hear about it. FIRST threw a concert so students could enjoy their time at the championship, but announcing to 51 other teams that they lost an award in the middle of a concert seemed kind of harsh to me.

-Besides all the discomfort this may have brought to a few teams, I was also unsure of the benefits this brought to the winning chairmans team. If I recall, no video was ever played, and as I anxiously waited to see excited students raise up that large clock in pure happiness, I never did. The clock was never officially handed to 359. Not to mention, I still am in love with the past's tradition of announcing the award during the finals, with ALL eyes on you. It has always seemed so magical, and everyone could just feel all the hardwork a team as done. Watching 341 stand up and start hugging each other while the crowd went wild was.. amazing to me. I REALLY hope 359 enjoyed themselves and had an amazing time at the concert, but I would not recommend FIRST does that again.

Overall.. Feel free to disagree with my opinions. I feel like they could have handled this better. The concert was REALLY fun and awesome to watch. Better than expected in my opinion. I just feel like they could have just waited the extra day, and announced some of those awards the day later. (Although the dean's list winners on stage was something I would recommend again)