With 12 events attended so far and at least seven or eight (depending if Ramp Riot gets back to me and if Kevin's event in Milwaukee goes through) more to go including one this weekend in Austin, Texas I thought I'd chime in on my perspectives on this season so far (I don't believe in the existence of an off season):
THIS YEAR'S BESTS (so far):
BEST TIME HAD: I'd have to say Boston. Lots of good friends and I got to stay at the House of Eckhart with Kim and the Angry! as well as members of 1511 and 2168 made for an awesome time!
MOST COMPETITIVE EVENT: IRI. There is no event I can think of where the 8th seed has just as much a chance to go all the way as the number one seed as IRI, It's what makes it FIRST's top off season event. MSC would be second.
BEST RUN EVENT : Boston. Top notch crew how were on point the whole weekend through and through led by the JefFTA. Battlecry and MSC are runner ups.
MOST FUN REGIONAL: Montreal. Yes my Garmin went evil and got me terribly lost every day and I often felt like a stranger in a strange land there but boy did those folks know how to put on a party. I haven't seen that kind of energy and enthusiasm at a FIRST event since FLR 2005. It was a blast. Boston and FLR are runner ups.
BEST ROBOT: 67: I know they didn't blow up at IRI but if they had their driver from the season I think they would have been really strong at the event. 548 would be my second pick.
BEST MATCH: IRI quarterfinal three match one. A double triple and a last second two point basket by 469's inbounder snatched away a one point victory for their alliance. Pure energy. Archimedes final match three was second.
BEST VENUE: While the Gordon Field House on the RIT campus will always be my favorite I must say the Cintas Centre in Cincinatti is quite beatiful and I'm not usually a big fan of arena setups.
CRAZIEST WEATHER PHENOMENON: Surprisingly it wasn't the near tornado that happened during Einstien which was good and scary for sure. It was day one at Boston when it was 80 degrees outside and the freaky effect it had on the event. The ice under the field started to melt and unleashed a cold mist which caused all of our field tape to come loose and we had to use sidewalk chalk of all things to put down our lines for the field.
MOST HILARIOUS MOMENT: My mortal enemy
MauraS(current inbounder and future X-Cat driver or coach) getting conked on the noggin' by a poof ball at FLR during the elims. She's a soccer player by trade so a poof ball is nothing but she obviously wasn't expecting it and her reaction was so classic right then and there I could care less if we didn't win another match all year my year was made!
BEST FOOD. Montreal. Three words: Red. Velvet. Cupcakes (and the eggplant with ground lamb was pretty cool too not to mention all the free passion fruit juice you could drink).
BEST HOTEL. The Hostel I stayed at in Montreal was interesting but nothing beats staying with the Eckharts. Top notch hosts.
MOST INSPIRING MOMENT: From my own team. One of the requirements of our team to qualify to travel is to give an oral presentation during a meeting. One of our students Anastasia is painfully shy. So much so that when she was brought up in front of the team to do her oral presentation all she did was break down and cry in front of the team. Everyone felt awful for her and we mentors were trying to come up with ways for her to be able to do her presentation without falling apart because she's a great hardworking kid who deserves to travel with the team to St. Louis. She solved that problem for us weeks later when she stood up during one of the meetings later in the season. Held her head up high and confidently delivered her message without even flinching. I know it's not a Blue Banner or winning a Chairman's award or anything but it's little things like that that make me well up with pride to be involved with a program like this.
BEST TRIP: The two and a half exodus from Montreal to Boston to DC. I got to hang with alot of good FIRST friends make new one (in particular an awesome group of Americorp kids at DC who had never even heard of FIRST before and were mesmerized). Going to San Antonio was pretty cool too.
BEST OVERALL EVENT: MSC Championships. Tops notch teams were served by a top notch event. Great teams. Great atmosphere. Great volunteers. Next time MSC comes up just go. You will not be disspointed if you did.