[Kate00]

Speaking as a student on another team, who has competed both against and with the triplets, they have added to my FIRST experience, not detracted from it.

My team played against 1114 and 1503 in the finals at Waterloo. In no way were we intimidated, or annoyed that we were playing against two of the same robots. We knew that it would be near-impossible to beat them, but it did not decrease our level of drive. If anything, it increased our will to win, being up against two of the best robots in FIRST. Naturally, I was disappointed when we lost, but in no way was it any different from losing to three different robots.

Their actions on the field are echoed off the field. I got an opportunity to talk to both mentors and students on the triplets, and our pit at Greater Toronto was beside 1503. Every time I talked to one of their members, I was so impressed with the level of inspiration I saw from their team. It has inspired me to try and raise my team to that level. They are amongst the nicest teams out there.

I believe that the level of enthusiasm amongst the students and mentors on the teams, and the behavior they have towards other teams, goes further then what their robots look like. In my humble opinion, teams who cannot be graciously professional and accept that other teams have different ways of inspiring their students, and choose to drop out because of it, never truly understood the values of FIRST in the first place.