Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkoRamius1086
And partially related to that note, was there a strategic reason that "Team Canada" was not doing the triple balance like they had done so many times reliably and flawlessly in their division?
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Yes. We found that it was very difficult to triple balance when we never had had three moving robots at the same time... In all seriousness, we desperately wanted to triple balance but the communication issues our alliance experienced made this impossible. Both 1114 and 2056 were dead for significant periods of all three matches, while 4334 was motionless for the entire first match.
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The issues of Einstein 2012 were highly unfortunate. There's no sugar coating it. For the rest of my life, I will never forget the looks on the faces of team members of every team down there. Not just the losing teams, but the winners as well. No one was happy about what happened. We all felt so helpless. Everyone was trying to console each other, but there was nothing anyone could say other than "it's not right".
The most striking moment for me was when 2056's six year alliance captain, Isaac Hunter, looked at me and said "Karthik, can't we do something about this? We can't just let this happen." I was left speechless. I'm used to being the person who always has something to say to make people feel better. But at that moment all I could conjure was "There's nothing we can do. It's over."
The silver lining of this incident was the enduring spirit of gracious professionalism between the 12 affected teams. Everyone was looking out for each other, the lines between alliances became completely blurred. In many ways it felt like there was one giant 12 team alliance that won Champs together. I hope that gets recognized in some way or another.
The statement put out by FIRST after the event was very powerful. I commend Jon Dudas for taking such swift action. I'm confident that he will lead a thorough investigation into the events of Saturday afternoon. I hope that FIRST will prove my answer to Isaac to be wrong. I hope there is something that can be done to rectify what happened. In fact, hope is the wrong word. I know and have complete faith that FIRST is going to fix this. Let's just give them time.
In the mean time, I'd like to congratulate our 2012 Champions of the World, Teams 180, 25 & 16. These teams should carry that title with both honour and pride.