[Daniel_LaFleur]

My greatest moment in FIRST is probably very different than most.

I've been part of teams that have won regionals, won rookie all star, and many other awards, but my greatest moment happened at a little offseason event ('Mayhem in Merrimack' put on by Chop shop 166).

The game was triple play and that was the year that everything that could have gone wrong did. We got boxed out of our home regional due to school internet issues, so we had to travel that year. During our 1 regional, anything that could go wrong did, including an incorrect rules interpretataion that required us to rebuild our lift system at the regional. Needless to say it was a very uninspirational year (so far).

Anyways, at the offseason event things started to click ... the robot was performing perfectly, the new autonomous code was on spot every time, things were just going our way. After the seeding rounds we were the #1 seed at 8-0. We chose the 2nd seed and they declined (wanting to work with another team). We went through the quarter- and semi- finals without a loss (as did the #2 seed).

In the finals, we won the first match and they won the second match, setting up a 3rd match for the championship. With a few seconds left in this 3rd match the score was tied and we were trying to cap a tetra 7-high on the center goal (very high for those who do not know the game). The #2 seed team was playing some rough defense and our 'bot tipped over. The referee called the tipping intentional and that gave us the game / match and event champions ... but our students didn't believe that they tipped us intentionally and without prompting from anyone went to the head referee and asked if we could decline the penalty. The head referee explained that we had won and if he recinded the penalty it would be a tie and would have to be replayed, to which our students replied "We don't believe that they tipped us on purpose and we don't want to win that way".

The head referee recinded the penalty, we replayed the match and we won ... but, in truth (in my mind), the kids won the second they asked the referee to recind the penalty. That is my greatest moment in FIRST.