I'd like to thank all the teams who came to mayhem. It was a great competiton, everyone had a lot of fun. Thanks to #140 for hosting us for such a great day.
I'd like to extend my thanks to our final round partners. We were extreamly lucky to play all of them in the qualification rounds, and even luckier to get to pick them in the finals. All the teams involved made my job as the allience leader easier and less stressful then I thought. They were willing to make choices on their own, and refer to me at the same time. Everyone knew what was going on. All the drivers understood some fairly complicated plans and pulled them off. I couldn't ask to be allied with cooler people.
Also, Team 88 helped us change out a bent (steel!) drive shaft in between our last two final rounds. This was a job that should have taken half an hour. But with 88's help, it was done in about 7 minutes, just seconds before I would have had to make the call to use the stretcher. I didn't get to shake the hands of the guys who helped, but belive me when I say I'm thankful.
All through the day I saw everyone communicating and planning things out. I saw pit crews lending tools and jokes. I saw the tech crew squeeze 44 matches into 4 hours with only one player station. I saw teams work out 300+ game plans quickly and efficently with no hassles. I saw parents and specators shouting and cheering all day. I saw people who had been up and on their feet for 12+ hours (namely the tech crew) still smiling and happy just to be there. I saw a lot of good food.
What I didn't see were big egos, unfair play, people disagreeing with the refs and anyone having a truely bad time. This was FIRST at it's best.
Thank you everyone who worked to make saturday such a fun day for team #95, you can be sure we will be there next year.
-Andy