[PayneTrain]

That event totally blew the pants off of any other regional I've ever been to. At least 30 of the robots there would make eliminations at any given regional, and I would say at least 16 teams there are Championship worthy. I would like to say a few things.

-This was probably the most competitive regional of the weekend. It wasn't the event with the best teams, but there were so many good robots on the field at once, and high scoring matches were decided by fewer than 12 points (a perfect cycle multiple times. Having 82 and 85 point ties was unbelievable. The fact that scoring 132 points can't give you a close win is insane. I loved it.

-Everyone there was so nice. The volunteers I got to work with (until I coughed up a lung Friday night and was under orders to sleep off my cold), all of the teams, staff, speakers... I guess I'm going to to probably end up at more than 3 events next year, and I'm more than ok with that.

-Even though the tournament winners aren't from the National Capital Region, don't dismiss the National Capital Region. 79, 379, and 383 lit up the court and deserved to win, but it's a crime that 612 isn't going to St. Louis. They can (and have) put up better numbers than over 95% of other teams in the sport. It's unfortunate the Wild Card can't account for a team that excelled all season but couldn't fry the big fish. I hope to see them wiping the floor at some offseason events if the CMP waitlist is unkind to them as much as fate has been.

-I'm really proud of my old team, 422. When I joined the team as a freshman, we went to our away regional and we were just a dozen dudes and some parents on a trip that was a financial impossibility. We had a robot and a prayer. 5 years later, 5 dozen students, parents, grandparents, dedicated mentors, alums, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, sponsors both current and potential, VirginiaFIRST board members, and friends traveled up to 3 hours away just to get a glimpse at what the team has done. It doesn't look like there's any real big hardware in store for the team this season, but it's so rewarding to see the jarring evolution of the team over the last five years, and I can't wait to watch the next five. 422 comes from a government and social sciences school in the inner-city of Richmond and it's getting people from all all walks of life to care about what the team does. So many people are investing so much time and money into the 30-odd students because they see their booming potential becoming a reality.