[Adam Freeman]

OK...what an interesting way to win the Michigan State Championship. Obviously "dead" in the blue protected area, possibly in the way of a double or triple balance is not the way we would have wanted to finish out an incredible FiM Season.

I'd like to thank all the people that made this event possible...all the volunteers, refs, judges, FTAs, teams, etc...just another awesome run event all around.

- To 469, thank you for allowing us to play with you guys one more time this season. Both your team and your ro bot are incredible. For anyone that hasn't noticed, 469 has the best robot in Michigan and probably all of FIRST. Just an incredible performance all weekend long. Thanks for carrying the load for the alliance and our failing robot. I don't think we have seen the full power an alliance of 469+67 could have, yet this season. I will keep my fingers crossed that we will get one more chance to show it in St. Louis. On a different note, it has been incredible how close our teams have gotten over this season. At Waterford we were feeling each other out. At Troy we were working together. At MSC we were messing around and joking with each other. We have gone from fellow localteams and rivals...to teammates...to friends, its amazing.

- To 830, thanks for being great alliance partners. Awesome defense and smart play. You guys were willing to do whatever we asked you to do and did it very well. We could not have won without you guys.

- Congratulations to 548, 2054, and 245. This was not how we wanted to win on a debatable call. You guys were awesome competitors and great sports about the entire situation.

- To 548, you guys are awesome. Winners at Northville with us, Finalists at Troy and MSC against us. Constant improvement all season long. We know how much you guys have worked this year, especially seeing you in the shop after what must have been 2-3 all nighters this season. You are a budding powerhouse Michigan team.

- Congrats to 27, 33, and 503 on your MSC Chairman's awards and 1718 on the Engineering Inspiration Award. Also, congrats to Debbie May, from 1023, on her WFFA.

- Congrats to all the teams that qualified for the Championship in St. Louis. But, I am extremely sad that our good friends the Thunderchickens did not qualify... such a great team, it will just be really weird when they aren't there.

- Thanks to all the great people that come from a long way to see this event live (Andy Baker, Meridith and John Novak, Koko Ed...). Also, it was cool to have Dean witness the awesomeness of MSC...and have Bill Miller sitting courtside watching the Eliminations.

Now on to the last match. I am still not 100% sure what the issue was. I would assume there are some small metal chips inside the cRIO or the Digital side car....or what I was told we found was that the radio was bumped from Bridge to Auto. Either way, we would lose communication from the Drivers station to the robot. I believe the FTAs could see it drop communications, but robot appeared to be live (all light on cRIO/Radio) when we checked it out on the field. We dropped for about 11sec in the middle of the match, regained control for about 15sec, then dropped again chasing a ball over in the blue protected area. We were not going over there to interfere with any blue balancing. 469 did come over and bump us, in hopes of us coming back alive, but there was no intention to move us closer to the blue bridge. The hope was that their bump was what helped us come alive the first time, so maybe it would work again. It wasn't planned or even strategic (more of reactionary by the driver), since it would have been better for them to just go and double or single balance for the win.

I can't say definitively one way or the other if the right call was made by the refs....since the overlap of rules in this years game confuse the heck out of me. I am happy with the call they made...but mostly because we benefitted most from it. Although I would have loved to play strong all the way through the entire match and ended on another awesome double triple balance for the win, just so we could have put on a better show for the TV special (and be heading into St. Louis with as much confidence as possible).

Hopefully we can help bring another Championship trophy back to Michigan, where they belong, again!

-Adam