[davidfv]

It was only one week ago and we all survived. My name is David Voracek, I was one of the two MC and Game Announcer in training...Bill Gough who's voice you heard doing most of the team introductions was the other Game announcer in training. He was so well prepared and ready for the competitions, he really went the extra mile in gathering updated team information.

We were giving the Awesome Dan Green and Tyler Olds a break when they needed it. Those two have those jobs down to an art, and it was a great learning experience for me.

I grew up in Burnsville, MN and now living out in California as an engineer for NASA. When I heard there was going to be a MN regional, I just had to be a part of the beginning of something wonderful and it was...This event ranked up very high among all the regionals that I have been attending over the past five years.

After Thursday, I was a little nervous because several robots did not make any practice matches. But, the robots that came out on Friday and Saturday were amazing. The cooperation in the pits was great, I saw many green and red shirts working in a lot of pits different from their own. Even the rookie teams were helping out each other when they could. There was a great job in pit placement mixing the vets with the rookies.

Teams were on-time making their matches as a matter a fact we were running ahead of schedule both on Friday and Saturday. Which was great credit to the cueing people, inspectors, pit management, the game referees, the field reset crew, and of course the teams.

The one thing a lot of people were nervous about was the alliance selection, but ALL teams were well prepared and it went off without a hitch. That was a great relief to all.

I would like to thank Mark for the opportunity to come home and volunteer for the regional. I had a lot of fun and was so proud of all the teams, especially the rookie teams that made the event so wonderful.

Mark Lawrence and his sister Susan did an outstanding job in organizing the event. Ken Rosen I think is the powerhouse in helping to organize and get started all those new teams. I would like to thank Dottie who helped my parents find me and was very kind to them.

Congratulations to all the award winners and special kudos to the Robettes and their great team, they were certainly a crowd favorite. Team 2169, KingTec, you guys are awesome and lucky to have such a great mentor.

I am going to keep working on Burnsville and try to get a team started. If you know any body that attends the High School, talk to them and help me out.

So I hope to get invited back next year and be able to work one of the fields. Maybe I can convince the team I mentor to join me. If you are in Atlanta, join Team 399 for the Roboprom or come around and say HI to us in our pits.

IT WAS A GREAT WEEK IN MINNESOTA!!!! THANK YOU ALL!!!!!