[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Mark 3138

On behalf of team 3138, Innovators Robotics, we would like to congratulate teams 48 Delphi Elite, 2614 MARS and 375 Robotic Plague for their regional win at the Pittsburg regional event. Team 48 never lost a single match and their machine shot around the 80% mark for the competition. Team 48 also won the coveted Chairman Award. Two nets and two blue banners at one competition.

Above their amazing accomplishments at the competition, Travis Hoffman, mentor of team 48, received the regional Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. This could not have gone to a more deserving person. Travis has been an instrumental part in the success of many FRC Teams. There are not enough words that can describe the positive impact that he has had in the FIRST community.

Congratulations!

Mark - thank you very much for all the kind words. Since its inception, the people of 3138 have been a joy to be around and a personal source of inspiration - a team that makes all southern Ohio grandmothers very proud. As I told you in person, giving your students four straight weeks with a practice bot and minds full of good ideas, it's going to be scary to see what you unleash upon the field in Cincy.

Quite simply, this past weekend was as overwhelming for our team as it was awesome. Many of us have yet to fully recover - I know I am still in zombie mode. This is unfortunate, because we have more driver practice and robot upgrades to pursue before Wisconsin.

Let me take this opportunity to share my Pittsburgh thoughts all in one post. I will refrain from thanking folks internal to 48 because I've been doing a lot of that elsewhere!

• Thank you to Patricia DePra and all the staff and volunteers at the Pittsburgh Regional event for running a very smooth and professional operation, especially during the unfortunate events going on nearby on Thursday.
• Thank you to all who congratulated me on the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award recognition. I'm just happy to have someone from Team 48 represented among the finalist ranks after 15 years!
• Thank you to the Championship WFA winners who somehow manage to orchestrate the WFFA awards judging for all these regional/district events while being spread out all over the map. Upon asking Andy Baker, I was told the specifics of their evaluation methods are kept secret from us because the world is not yet ready to comprehend that level of awesome.
• Thank you to all the judges who volunteer their time and energy to these events each season.
• Thank you and congratulations to our elimination alliance partners, 2614 and 375. Ohio, West Virginia, and New York invaded Western Pennsylvania and conqured it together! 2614 - your robot, pit, and team are the epitome of professional - you made our first choice very easy! 375 - what a steal at the last pick in the draft! Defense, passing, the ability to sink at least 1 ball in hybrid with regularity - you were essential to our alliance victory! And the six-ball hybrid mode was a thing of beauty to witness (as you can tell from my shouting) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24bx4J4tNq8.
• Congratulations to the Finalist alliance of 2641, 279, and our NEOFRA buddies, the Girard RoboCats of 379. Your efforts in Finals Match 1 gave us our toughest test of the elimination rounds. If anyone bothers to look at Ed Law's latest OPR stats, you will find Team 379 sitting at #29 on that list (2614 is also on the list at #23). RoboCat students and mentors have worked VERY hard to put together a quality design, which showed on the field and was recognized by an Engineering Excellence Award (sponsored by Delphi - shout out to my employer, yo) on Friday. 379's robots seem to get better and better every year - I'm very proud of you guys! Good luck at Buckeye - we'll see you again in at Queen City!
• Congratulations to our NEOFRA robot collaboration partner team, Team 3193 Austintown Fitch Falco Tech, for successfully finalizing their bot during a frantic Thursday, working through some early bugs Friday, and making the semifinals Saturday. Their performance placed all three NEOFRA teams in Pittsburgh into the final four of the competition. Our not quite twin robots were based on a design shared between 48 and 3193, but the robot builds were almost completely independent enterprises. Having grown the size of their team's student population significantly and established a very solid parent booster group, 3193 has taken numerous positive steps in 2012 toward reaching fully independent sustainability.
• Congratulations to all award winners, but especially to Dean's List finalists Jaden Barney (3504) and Chase Douglass (128), Seegrid Scholarship winner Angelina Conti (291), and to Team 3504 on their Engineering Inspiration Award.
• Thank you to Nick Lawrence of 1503 - for being yourself.
• Thanks also to all of 1503 for coming down from Canada and visiting us - having some Canadian flair and competitive spirit at U.S. events is always a fun time. Besides, I still think your national anthem sounds cooler than ours, and your students pulled off their performances each day brilliantly!