[Ken358]

Sorry for the negative connotation in the title. We just got back from the Philadelphia Regional. Overall we had a great time. Congratulations to the winners. (365, 316, 56) You were a powerhouse alliance, and absolutely deserved to win. We were honored to be on the field with you.

We apologize for tipping 56 in the finals. We inadvertently cheated everyone out of exciting third match. I just want to make sure that no one thinks that we did it purposely. We would have much preferred to keep them upright so that the matches could have been settled on the field rather than in the judge’s huddle.

My disappointment comes from the feeling that the announcer and judges seemed to paint us as an overly aggressive team in the finals. I hope that everyone understands that that is not what we are about. We are an offensive robot. We rarely play defense.

In the qualifying matches our drivers always erred on the side of caution. Our motto is “It’s more fun when everyone plays.” Since we are not a “home town team” and not very well known at the Philly regional I am concerned about perpetuating this perceived image of extreme aggressiveness. I hope the teams that we played with and against can attest to the fact that we played our matches fairly, graciously, professionally and with integrity. We did not win the SBPLI Chairman’s Award by being a rouge team.

Thank you so much 293 for choosing us and 834 for playing with us. Sorry if we let you down.
The number of impressive robots at this competition was mind blowing. 103 was amazing!!!! 365 you are the whole package. We would be proud to be half the team that you are. The field was so deep with talent that many qualified robots unfortunately did not get to go to finals.

By the way, I am not knocking the judges or announcer. I realize that you guys are volunteers. You are my heroes for making the commitment to students and to FIRST. There are not many people in this world that could or would do the job you do.

I was, by far, most proud of our students who, while noticing that a lot of pinning, bumping grinding and tipping went unnoticed in other matches, often against us, handled the disappointment of being disqualified with dignity.

Respectfully,
Ken Tiu
Team 358