[B. Flaherty]

I definitely have to go with number 1. In my 3 years, I have experienced both sides of this debate. In 2005, we were the second pick of 56 at Montclair Mayhem. Sure my team was a rookie and pretty decent, but 56 could almost have won it without our help. Sure, winning the event was fun, but it wasn't until this year that I realized how much sweeter it is to LOSE in the finals as alliance captain.

Brandon mentioned the Boston regional, my team was the alliance captain of the 1st seeded alliance. That fact alone made my season. We made it to the finals, and it was a very hard fought 3 matches, but I knew that we got beat by the better alliance, and I was extremely happy with our outcome. We didn't get to go to Atlanta, but I figured my last competition ever went out on a good note, with some silver hardware.

Little did I know, that my season would have one last competition the very next weekend, at the Palmetto regional. Here it was confirmed to me that we did have a good robot, and we weren't just lucky at the Boston Regional. Once again we were near the top of the seedings, and ultimately in the end we were seeded 4th, and picked by the top seed, 1251. Once again we found ourselves in the finals, but sadly our partners were having some problems, but that didn't stop us from pushing it to 3 matches. In the final match my team scored 7 tubes by themselves, but in the end the 60 bonus points of the second seeded alliance beat us. I was upset at first, knowing that we wouldn't be going to Atlanta at all, but once again, the journey there is much sweeter when you are the captain or the first pick. This in no means takes away from the third seed in anyway however, because they still did their parts. It's just my personal opinion that wins are sweeter when your bot is doing most of the work. If I had to, I would gladly lose in match 3 of the finals all over again.