[Lil' Lavery]

Thanks Rich for once again pointing out what should be obvious. Despite ending on a bit of a sour note after our last two semi-final matches, 116 still had our best event ever. Despite coming into the event knowing we were not in the running for the two awards we wanted most (Chairman's and Autodesk Visualization). And not because it was the first time in our twelve year history that we actually made the elimination rounds at Championship (in the alliance era). We interacted more with other teams than we ever have, chatting with our friends from 612, 1002, and 1885, going to Dave & Buster's with other NoVa teams, having Raul walk me through Wildstang's drive system (thanks again), having our long time friends 122 help us out when we really needed a printer (thanks TONS for that guys), playing against legendary teams like 45 (3 matches in a row!), feeling the comradery of all the elimination round teams, talking to WFA winners like Andy Baker, Paul Copioli, and Ken Patten, having one of those WFA's (Paul) helping to repair our alliance partners, hanging out with friends from other teams (and around the country), etc.
Sure, we certainly wish we could have gone further. We wish we could have seen you guys in the finals (as I said to both Rich Kressley [1712] and Tyler Holtzman [2056], "We better see you guys in the finals" as the Galileo quarter-finals began). Unfortunately it didn't happen for either of us.
FIRST is about so much more than what happens on the field, and sometimes we forget that.