[Cory]

Going to Nationals in 2002 (my second year).

I was awestruck by everything. Showing up and seeing what amounted to a small tent city in a parking lot at Disney World, with a massive stadium set up around Einstein, plus all the amazing robots, and people. Particularly seeing the Einstein eliminations... 60 vs 71 and 180 vs 71 were instant classics.

I'm very glad I made it to the last year it was in Orlando. It's been a completely different experience every year since then. Orlando had so much more atmosphere and camaraderie between teams than Atlanta seems to. You couldn't go *anywhere* around the various Disney parks, or other local attractions without running into multiple other teams. Plus the vast majority of teams all stayed at the Disney hotels, so everyone was in a central location and could hang out.

Those were the days...