[Bharat Nain]

It is really disappointing to seed in the top 8 at the championships, pick a decent team and then not be able to work with them because they do not want to. It is a competitive game and being picked by not-so competitive team is never an easy feeling. However, I feel quite disappointed in the fact that a veteran team did not have the fight in them to do the best with their alliance. This story truly saddens me and I feel GP was not in effect. Anyway, here it goes.
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We are a team who has been in FIRST for few years. We have done extremely well the first couple of years but we are from an area of the country that doesn't see many powerhouse teams.

My issue was that we were a team that, through the luck of the draw, was an alliance captain at CMP. We knew we were lucky but we did play the draw we were given.

To make a long story short, the kids were pumped to be able to pick a great team to finally play with and we did pick a partner that has a championship under their belt.

After the alliance picking we went over to their pit and we got basically... nothing. It was so obvious that they were disappointed to be playing with us that I got the students out of there as quickly as I could. We set up an alliance meeting and set up a strategy and went out to play.

We went through the motions on the field and got beat by a great alliance. It was an experience we will never forget.

I am just wondering if these kinds of teams stop to think or even understand what their attitude can do to a young team.

We came to CMP (our second year there) not with the idea that we were the best team or the best robot but that we were solid and we could really help a team out. The kids also came out seeing all of these great teams and wanting to emulate them both on the field and off.....

We talked about it as a team and everyone vowed that if WE ever become a team that others look up to... that we will NEVER do this to a team. We will be enthusiastic with any team that chooses us ... no matter who they are.

FIRST is an incredible place and we had a great time. We made lots of new friends and learned a huge amount. We will be back. I just wonder about this... we learned a valuable lesson from this team... so I guess I should thank them for that....

I debated whether I should bring this up on CD but after three days pondering it I felt that this was the appropriate place. I also did not want to embarrass the team that we were with. If I posted normally it would be pretty obvious who we were talking about. I don't want that.

thank you for letting me bring it up here ....

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