[Dr. Robot]

The students and mentors of Team 5924 can't thank all of you enough for the wisdom shared with us at this event. While we had a unique vantage point of the current no-penalty world record score as you dropped that score on us, we would have it no other way than to go out fighting against a world class alliance with the defending world champs leading the charge.

Trying to defend 1678 and 971 at the same time felt like a cross between acting as John Conner in "Terminator: Rise of the Machines" and the feeling of being a single defender trying to simultaneously guard Steph Curry and Klay Thompson with someone feeding them an endless supply of basketballs. I can still hear the chains from the high goal jingling in my ear. lol

Seriously though, I truly understand "Gracious Professionalism" after:
- the advice from Steve (1678) on the practice field
- the curricular resources from Tyler (1678)
- the help cutting a polycarbonate sheet from Devin (1678) while we tried giving rookie cheesecake to another rookie team during qualifications
- the extra VersaPlanetary gearbox we needed given to us by Bryan (4159)
- the ethernet to USB adapter provided by Clint (2144)
- all of the great advice from Mike (1678) and Austin (971)
- the epic teamwork & synergy we felt with ALL of the RoboVikes (701) that started with our first caravan through the portcullis in that great match we lost at the last second when 3250 beat us by climbing with that epic Batman-style grappling hook
- the offseason help from Rob (3250)
- and the huge amount of advice and hands-on practice time on their field given to us by Travis, Cory, Jared, Nick, and the rest of the mentors and student leaders from the Poofs (254) from day 1 when we didn't even know you were allowed to build a second robot, until the Friday before the competition when we busted our robot up real good on their practice field and found the weak points of the robot that needed to be fixed before Sacramento.

We're ecstatic to compete with all of you again, honored to win the Rookie All-Star Award and be chosen for the playoffs (thanks 3669!), and can't wait to go to SVR & Champs in St. Louis. Thanks for the memories and good luck the rest of the way to all of you.