[trollin1st]

I'm glad that someone posted something about the 2 regionals. I went to the UTC regional so I would be able to actually watch a regional (at the BAE regional I was either in the pits or in the driver's station). I was very disappointed with the UTC regional. I couldn't figure it out untill Sat morning. The FIRST spirit was NOT there, gracious professionism was throw out the window on Friday, there was NO cheering for other teams. There were teams that were pushing their own alliance off of the top of the ramp so they could have the glory of being "king of the hill." And don't get me started on the refs. They flagged Merrimack twice for "aggressive driving." Please tell me where in the rule book is that rule?? I ended up going to Woody after the second time they were flagged for "aggressive driving" because they knocked over a human player stack that was next to a rep and it flew out of bounds (first they got a warning because they broke a corner of a box...come on @ the BAE regional there was over 300 boxes broken over the 3 days). Even Woody was suprized at the call, asked if there was any points taked away, luckly no, but they were threatening to DQ Merrimack if it happened again, and he stated in Woody fashion "you are seeing new refs getting re-calibrated, let me go and listen to how they are making the calls and fix the problem." For the rest of the comp, you never heard that call again. And as a coach, the amount of flaggs for the coaches grabbing controls...it was just mind boggling...the biggest thing thatI could have fallen out of my chair was when a team sent out a parent to play human player since thier robot wasn't going to make it to the match...umm hello, can't do that.

Basically...I wish I didn't spend the time nor the $$ to drive 2 1/2 hrs to CT to watch the competition...and THANK YOU BAE FOR A GREAT REGIONAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!