I am guessing our coach is going to reply to this eventually, but I would like to put in my two cents on my experiences...
In Blue Cheese's first time at IRI, we had few of our members (as did many other teams I met) due to seniors at college, work, or family vacation. Because of this the members that were able to come along had their hands full, running around doing jobs they normally dont have to do. It is because of this that many of us were given the oppertunity to converse with many of the teams attending that we had not met before, such as Simbotics, HOT, Las Guerillas, Metal in Motion, Killer Bees...
...And also catch up with new friends such as Exploding Bacon, Delphi ELITE, ThunderChickens, Mechanical Mayhem, OP...
I also want to say how well run I thought that IRI was run, match transition was smooth, organization was amazing, and the webcast allowed fans, family, and followers of all FIRST teams to watch this amazing event. The volunteers, organizers, and sponsors deserve a big THANK YOU!
I would like also to congradulate the champions: 330, 469, 359, and 399. They were great competition, and after finals that intense they certainly deserved it.
Apologies from my team (and the rest of our brilliant alliance partners) to Andy Baker and the janitorial staff of Lawrence North High School are another thing that needs to be made. We had some fierce, fierce competition (33, 1718, 70, and 51) in the semi-finals, resulting in a couple of intense and time consuming ties
Simbotics deserves a thanks. Their team, their whole team, deserves credit for many great feats (including insane scouting and a slick robot). In my opinion 1114 is undoubtedly one of the best teams in the world.
OP. A supremely competitive team that we first ran into at Galelio. At IRI, even with brand new drivers, they proved to be the team that we met in Atlanta. 2056 is a team that no doubt deserves a huge thanks from Blue Cheese.
1086 also played 3138 in the Galelio finals this year. As with their partners 2056, they also showed that they deserve the title of IRI Finalists. Without them we would not have made it to the finals, as we had to sit out match 2 of our semi-finals.
Blue Cheese had a blast and will be hoping to be invited again!
Sincerely,
Petrie