[MisterJ]

I've been trying to avoid this thread, but I don't think I can any more. Kudos to the posters above for their support of team 341, who is a well-tuned group of hard-working students and mentors. With such a big team - yes, it requires a heck of a lot of clapping when they head to the field after winning an award, but it's extremely well-deserved clapping - Daisy students and mentors have the ability to both create very high-functioning robots and provide help to other teams, which they do regularly.

I feel my team has an interesting perspective on team 341. We lost to them in both of our district finals 2-matches-to-1. It's so easy to become annoyed frustrated after that, but I've heard my students instead asking, "How can our team become like that? What can we do to bring ourselves up on that level?"

It's fun to look at a match schedule and see that you're playing with or against such a potent team. If you're allied with them, you know there's a lot to be learned. If you're against them, you know that you're going to be forced to raise your game and develop an even better strategy.

Even though we're 2-8 versus team 341 in our first two years as a team, we're watching you closely... We're learning a lot... And we're looking up to you as role models. One of these years, we're going to beat you guys in elims and I hope you can smile when we do, knowing how much of our success has come from imitating MAR's best team.