[ThePancakeMan]

Originally Posted by kgargiulo

Some thoughts from a 4143 mentor who couldn't be there with his team:

The video feed commercials could not have worse timing. It is possible I used inappropriate language around my children when this happened. Every time I thought about trying the "commercial free" link it seemed that you were about to come on, or a commercial came on. No more traveling during regionals.

During Finals auto I was shouting "Why are we still moving?!?!" at the screen. A question my laptop did nothing to answer, but which this thread has covered.

2338/Gear, 1756/Argos, 171/Herd: tremendous job all of you. Not only during Finals, but throughout the entire event. As it happens, I sit 3 desks away from a 1756 mentor at work, so we'll have some new stories when I get back in town.

2062/C.O.R.E and 2030/RoboTigers: With 4143 you created an exemplar of what three well-matched alliance partners can do in this game (even when cheesecake is not on the menu). You not only meshed well, but you built a great plan and executed nearly flawlessly (not complaining - I would have loved to see where we were supporting that stack in F-2). Also a huge dose of congratulations and praise to the scouting leads and scouts that created this alliance.

As Matt pointed out in his list of ironies, our seeding surely benefitted from alliances with 2338 and 1756 late in Quals.

Although the video feed, at least for me, makes it near impossible to follow litter action during the matches it was easy to tell how we did from the scores. Love the litter or hate it, life and engineering can be messy. We all have to roll with litter. Great job HP(s).

I may still be holding my breath after the can-grab in F-3. I was more than worried when I saw that. It was a great move.

Finally, to all of MARS/WARS, congratulations on our first regional win. I wish I could have been there with you. In our fourth year as a team I want to also mention how happy I am for, and proud of, the seniors that have been on the team since day 1. You, and all of the veteran members of the team, have set a high bar and I am both confident in and looking forward to seeing the younger members of the team meet and raise that standard.

Now, no more of that sappy stuff before St. Louis.

I've been wanting to say something along these lines. I was truly blown away by the effectiveness of Mars Wars alliance strategy. You guys had cooperated in such a perfect way with each other and it showed in your scores. In my eyes that is what a perfect alliance is. Instead of 1 or 2 bots that are all working on their own, instead working together to complete each other's stacks. Congrats! and shout out to 4143's AMAZING human player.