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Originally Posted by CJO
I have a lot of problems with team 254 (among other things, during the playoff rounds I saw four NASA engineers working on their robot), but I do not believe that they had a hand in throwing the regional.
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Thank you for having faith in our integrity, but I would just like to clarify one thing. Our team has only one engineer, Steve Kyramarios, who works extensively with the team. EJ Sabathia, an alumnus of the team; Bill Gold, an alumnus of now-defunct Team 258; and Al Bayer, are all college students, not engineers. Alan Federman, formerly of Team 1043, also helps out.
We do not have 4 engineers, and I can assure you that our students do great amounts of work on our robot. As a student myself, it saddens me that people would attempt to discount our achievements by implying that our students do nothing.
In my eyes, this attitude is the true problem regarding this regional.
Members of both teams 368 and 1097, two of the three teams most adversely affected by the penalty decision, have handled this in an extremely graciously professional manner. In their posts, they have expressed that they accept the decision by the referees, correct or incorrect, because they recognize that FIRST isn't about winning or losing; what's more important is the life lessons that all parties learn. This attitude is to be applauded.
There are 1000+ teams in FIRST, and only 3 can be considered "champions." But the other 997+ teams that also put in months of blood, sweat, and tears to create something that billions of people have never even dreamed of - they are champions too. It is the true mark of the champion to remain professional in both victory and defeat. Teams 368 and 1097 are true champions.
Let's all emulate their example, for their admirable handling of this unfortunate situation is the life lesson we all must learn here.