Thank you to everyone who participated in the Florida regional. It was a truly incredible event. One thing that struck me at UCF was the sheer number of friends made over the years with FIRST. It was nice to see so many familiar faces of both students and mentors, and I am humbled and grateful to have the chance to associate with so many wonderful people.
In my opinion, the Florida regional has set the stage for how this year's game will be played for the rest of the country. In a word - defense. Some of these robots score so fast that alliances simply must stop or at least delay them to have a chance at winning. (e.g. if you let 103 have free access to balls, they can beat your whole alliance by themselves) Another thing I noticed was just how valuable a good hybrid mode can be. It is really tough to overcome a 20+ point deficit in 2 minutes. Team 233 had some difficulties with our encoder gearing so we could only cross 2 lines - hopefully we can get it worked out in Hawaii.
The robots at UCF were amazing. For starters, there were several rookie robots who were really competitive, something you don't often see. Team 1649 had a suction device that worked exceptionally well, which is uncommon to say the least. There were some great scissor lifts too. Typically that type lift lurches when lifting and then is floppy once extended. Among the great lifters at Florida, team 79's lift was smooth and rock solid which gave them a quick and reliable scoring machine.
Usually you can look at the alliances in the finals and see which one is the "one to beat" - (and maybe we'll get lucky and they will be knocked out before we have to face them
). The alliances at Florida were all top notch, and any one of them could have won it given the right mix of circumstance and luck.
Thanks to all of you in the stands who cheered and injected so much excitement into the event - you turned a competition into a party. Believe me, the people on the field felt the love, and it made the experience that much better. Also, thanks to you all who worked to make this event happen - you did a great job. Things went so smoothly that we sometimes had to pause the competition to keep from getting too far ahead.
Thanks to our alliance partners 1251 and 86, you rocked and were fun to hang around to boot. And thanks to all of you other great friends in FIRST that came to play robots. It's awesome to be able to compete among so many outstanding folks. Finally, thanks to all the great people on team 233 - you make me proud to be pink!