[Lance]

We (Team #16) just got back from the St. Louis Regional where we had a great time. I just wanted to see if everyone liked the facilities and team party facilities. I thought they were great. The hockey rink we competed in was very nice too. The referees were pretty good, although I disagreed with the carpet ruling. The judges disqualified a few teams for excessive spinning on the carpet resulting in a minor carpet damage. I, personally, think teams should be able to pull and spin all they want, because tugging matches show power of teams and are also very interesting. I specifically recall one match where 343 and 312 where in a tugging match (these teams where of the most powerful bots there) and both of them got disqualified for tearing up the carpet a little. I think they should just fix it and go on with it, and not DQ teams for that... just my opinion. Anyways, team #16 had a great competition winning first seed with a qualification average of 105.43 and also winning the competition along with our allies 343 and 869. Also, I was very impressed with the robots of rookie teams. Many of them like 869 were well designed and powerful robots.

To 343 and 869: You guys were great! We had the loudest crowd out there, and the biggest for that matter. Both of your teams had great robots. I enjoyed driving with you guys (and girl). The finals were great... Nice and Close! (23 to 21 and 21 to 20) Good look to you at nationals!

Oh yeah, and Dean Kamen and John Doer were there on their segways to watch the regional event. I even got their autographs! That was really cool.

Great job to all teams at the St. Louis Regional event!


(yes, this is posted in both general forum and competiton in case you were wondering.)