What. A. Weekend.
I called it before: this was going to be THE most exciting Finger Lakes Regional ever, and was I right. But it wasn't just the best in terms of action on the field, but we had by far the best staff and volunteer crew ever assembled. I have a ton of people to thank and a bunch of congrats to offer:
Firstly, to my awesome FTAs, Liz and Mark and the other field crew Eric, Jeremy, and Tim. Thank you all so much for helping me with my first year as Scorekeeper/Field Power. I don't think I could have been anywhere as successful without Mark at the helm of the goal sensors and Liz taking care of the robots. A giant thanks to Chris and Brett, and all of my other score counters - you were an exceptional team and I offer my deepest gratitude for helping us ensure that the counts were accurate. Also, big thanks to Dante for being the best Head Ref in all of FIRST, JohnDar for being the only Announcer I ever want to hear, and to Angry Eric, Big D Dylan and Karthik for making this a well hyped event.
Next, I have a special message to those teams involved in Semifinal 1-2. To teams 3173, 250, 378, and 1405, 3003, 1559: I had an absolute mental breakdown trying to sort out the score, and I loved it. Thank you for being such great competitors and giving this regional a match to remember.
Then, the teams themselves:
While we had a lot of bumps and problems, congrats to 174 on not giving up at all. You really are one of the best teams to mentor and watching us go from a no-show to active and scoring, I am very proud of you. Head to buckeye with that same passion. As long as there is a match to play, play that match to win!
To Team 3173, for letting me hang around at their friday night meeting and eat their food. You are a very inspiring team and were one of my personal favorites this year (even though your full court shooter made it a pain for us to verify scores.
) I wish you even more success at Boston.
To the winners 1405, 3003, and 1559: You three have been great teams over the years at FLR, and I am very glad to see each of you take home a medal for the first time. You all had impressive robots and played every match of eliminations to the fullest. Your alliance had it all: A perfect 30 point climber, a defensive juggernaut that could score like crazy, and an accurate and fast shooter. You had the perfect formula to win and you deserve this victory.
To team 2809, congrats on your Regional Chairman's award and to 1111 on your EI award.
This also gets me to thank all of the teams coming in from out of state: Usually FLR is a very predictable regional, with all of us set on winning the same awards we have won many years in a row. But you road teams have shown us that in order to be the best we have a lot of work to do. Thanks for being gracious competitors and we hope to see you next year when FLR is a week 4 or 5 event.
And lastly, thanks to Charles and Brett from AndyMark for turning me into what they call an internet celebrity. I have no idea if that is true, but it was great meeting you both and I look forward to seeing you again somewhere. I'm happy to have made your TraVlogs entertaining, if you are still reading this and haven't checked out their TraVlog, you should do that now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17KAFKSXMhU
To all of those I haven't mentioned, I thank you as well. This was an epic event and will be difficult to top next year. Good luck to all teams at their next event and we will see you all next year.