On behalf of FRC 2168 the Aluminum Falcons we would like to congratulate (FRC 20, FRC 195, FRC 95) on their well-deserved regional win at CT. How 95 slipped that far in alliance selections is beyond me. A mix of great scouting and accepted risk put together a great alliance and some exciting finals on behalf of the winning alliance and the finalist (FRC 2067, FRC 230, FRC 4134). Again, a great performance from both alliances! Special thanks to GUS for picking us, and our whole alliance (FRC 228, FRC 263, FRC 3104) for competing their hearts out for 3 matches.
More importantly for the Aluminum Falcons, I would like to express our appreciation for some new and very good friends; that would of course be FRC 228 GUS Robotics. Without writing a book about our mid competition season collaboration, I can say that the entire team is a group of the most gracious, supportive, classy, sharing, skilled, and professional FRC students and mentors we have had the privilege to work with. In just a short build week and a Regional, the two teams assimilated together as friends and FIRST family working together to not only make our robots better, but our teams better. While 228 may not have quite the number of banners and awards of other esteemed teams in FRC, their robots are always a model of technical excellence and their mentors and students are bastions of gracious, humble, competitors, seeking to constantly improve and provide the best opportunities and education to their students, which at the end of the day is the best legacy to have. GUS truly doesn’t build just robots, but also people. Regarding the elimination rounds at CT, we couldn’t have been more excited to work with anybody else and are deeply saddened that GUS and one of the top “run and gun” shooters (aka the precipitator) on the east coast will not be sharing the pits with us in St. Louis. We look forward to the future and working with GUS to make a well-deserved trip to championships next year.
The CT regional this year was the most exciting and competitive in recent memory, with a large number of rookies and great group of veterans. We made lots of new friends with both, and look forward to both helping and seeing each of us grow in the future. We look forward to seeing our friends in St. Louis; may we all represent our respective programs with determination towards excellence and inspire our students towards unparalleled success.