[3747Mentor]

I think it is ok to be angry right now. I think it is ok to be straight livid. I think it is ok to be hurt. I think we can be mad for the Einstein teams and for ourselves. We all have skin in this game. We are coaches, players, supporters, and fans. Imagine the outrage if it was found out the Super Bowl was rigged. There would be congressional investigations. It would blow up the 24 hour news cycle. There may even be riots.

Well, this was our Super Bowl, and someone fixed it! Someone tampered with our biggest stage and there are calls to laugh it off and look at the bright side. It is way too soon to be upset with someone for being angry. I was not on Einstein and I am angry! I am angry for those who were immediately affected by this despicable act and I am angry for my team as well. We are competitors. We want to know that our hard work and effort goes into a competition that is truly played on a level field. This person took that away and I am not ready to get over it. There are still too many unanswered questions that need to be resolved. I want to know the whole story, and right now, only a handful of people do.

Einstein is not only important for those involved, but it is extremely important to all of us as well. I read that it is not about the robots, or even about winning, but I disagree. The robots are the vehicle to inspiration about STEM. Winning increases the impact. It is the motivation to improve ourselves. Professionals need to win contracts so they must find the best/most cost-effective solutions. Our goal is to win a competition. We don’t build a robot to do show and tell (the time for that is after the competition season is over) we build one to win Einstein. Competition drives us to improve. We can’t all win Einstein, so when we don’t, we look toward the teams that do make it to serve as our inspiration and motivation for improvement next season. We learn things from the teams involved and try them in the offseason. We use their excellence to make ourselves better. Those teams were cheated from an honest competition, and so were we.

I can see trouble in this thread for us. We are fighting amongst ourselves about what teams should be satisfied with and when they should be ready to move on. Arguments are getting personal and off the subject at hand. Are we really angry at each other, or are we angry at the person who lit this candle. I think this community might be better served by expressing our outrage at the person who did this..by airing it out. I see in this thread and the Sabotage thread that was just closed that we are starting to turn it against ourselves, and I believe it is all misplaced anger. Who are we really angry at?

I am a pilot, and I know from experience that a great flight can be ruined in the eyes of passengers with a bad landing. Bounce one on hard and passengers talk about the whole experience as if it was horrible. Unfortunately, for FRC, Einstein was 2012’s landing. Only time will let the season be put into perspective. Please stop telling people to look at the positives. They will later. If you are ready, good, we need people looking forward, but don’t rush the others. These arguments will only further hurt us, which is exactly what we don’t need right now.