Sabotage

[Tyler Olds]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

...

Completely agree, have some fun and get off the CD soap-box that everybody likes to get up on when anything that could remotely be considered as "offensive" or "insensitive" is posted.

[Holtzman]

Originally Posted by Kevin Kolodziej

So the Einstein report has been out for an entire weekend now and I think everyone has had a chance to digest it a bit.

Yes, you're right. 4 days was more than enough time for us to get over having our entire team's goals, hopes, and dreams for the season crushed.

Originally Posted by Schnabel

I'm sorry to hear you feel this way about it. Yes it sucks what happened; however, we cannot change the past. We can only look into the future and plan to prevent what has happened. For now though, enjoy a little comic relief and save yourself the stress of what has happened.

You'll have excuse us if we don't join in the comic relief.

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

While I partially agree with you, don't forget that some highly esteemed members of our community made this song/video too. Just saying.

Just because someone is a highly esteemed member of the community, does not mean they are not capable of being an insensitive jerk. This is something that I will have no problem discussing with them in person this weekend.

Originally Posted by Tyler Olds

Completely agree, have some fun and get off the CD soap-box that everybody likes to get up on when anything that could remotely be considered as "offensive" or "insensitive" is posted.

I am getting very tired of people telling us that we should laugh this off. Were you there on Einstein? No. Did you have your robot disabled on the biggest stage in FIRST? No. Did you have to explain to a room full of your students that someone sabotaged everything they had worked towards this season? No. Did you have to explain to your employer why they should continue to grant you time off to attend competitions, and continue to support your team even after this debacle? No. Do you have any idea what we have been through? No!

Yes, we are angry. No, we will not laugh about this, and No, we will not sit idly by while someone makes a mockery of what happened on Einstein.

What we would appreciate, is if people would stop trying to make light of what happened, and give us the time we need to deal with this in our own way. We are simply not ready to laugh about this yet, and we likely never will be. The guilty party still hides in anonymity, and until they come forward and accept what they did, we will likely never have closure.

Would you be able to laugh it off if someone went into your pit and tore out your electrical system before the biggest matches of your season? Would you be so quick to "suck it up" if someone then made a music video about it?

We would like to laugh, just not about this. This is the last you will hear from 2056 on this subject.

[LeelandS]

I apologize if what I'm about to say comes off a little crass to much of the CD community.

Where to we get off telling those teams how they should handle the situation? None of us were in the position of the 12 Einstein teams during these events. None of us stood behind those alliance stations and watched as the clock ticked to to the end of a very special event in a team's career that MIGHT happen every few years, IF YOU'RE EXTREMELY LUCKY.

Dreams weren't torn from our hands like they were for those teams. People keep telling the Einstein teams to "chill out", try to get them to stop making such a big deal out of it. It is a big deal. Yes, FIRST isn't about the robots. It's about inspiring the students and building the future. But there are those of us whose passion for this organization runs blood deep. If I were in Tyler's, or Karthik's, or any of the Einstein team's position, I know I'd be furious. And I'd probably be extremely offended if someone were to tell we to "laugh it off" or "suck it up". Tyler has told us of how he had to stand in front of a room of students, parents and sponsors and tell them that all their hard work was for naught at the hands of someone who intentionally targeted their robot. I don't know what that would feel like. But I know I wouldn't be able to say it without tears in my eyes.

Those teams have had dreams stolen from them. IRI is a great place to compete, but it will no where near make up for the pain these teams have experienced. Dreams shattered. Spirits broken. Hopes smashed. How on Earth can anyone be justified in in telling them to not be upset at the situation?

Of course, I wasn't there either, so what do I know?

[AlecMataloni]

I'm not going to comment on the video, but I really enjoyed the photoshopped album covers. Especially this one: http://i.imgur.com/B252A.jpg.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by LeelandS

I apologize if what I'm about to say comes off a little crass to much of the CD community.

Where to we get off telling those teams how they should handle the situation? None of us were in the position of the 12 Einstein teams during these events. None of us stood behind those alliance stations and watched as the clock ticked to to the end of a very special event in a team's career that MIGHT happen every few years, IF YOU'RE EXTREMELY LUCKY.

I'm not gonna speak for others, but my impression is a lot of the "laugh it off" comments in this thread were directed towards those NOT affiliated with the "Einstein 12". IMO, it is understandable for them to feel offended by this, but there's no reason for everyone else NOT involved with those teams to be completely hurt by this.

And Andy, $@#$@#$@#$@#, that was a bold post to write, but it's sad to see what this is doing to the FIRST community.

[Garret]

Yes, you're right. 4 days was more than enough time for us to get over having our entire team's goals, hopes, and dreams for the season crushed.

If you think that being interfered with on Einstein makes your incredibly successful season a waste then you need to seriously redefine your definition of success. No one is saying suck it up, they are saying to appreciate all the amazing successes you did have. The fact that you didn't get to play to your full potential does not take away from the successes your team already had, the fact that you made it to Einstein already says enough to the fact that your team was great.

I know that this sounds harsh and insensitive,and I apologize for that, but I seriously think that devaluing your whole season over this is hurting your team more than it helps. You should celebrate your amazing season.

[Kimmeh]

Originally Posted by Garret

I know that this sounds harsh and insensitive,and I apologize for that, but I seriously think that devaluing your whole season over this is hurting your team more than it helps. You should celebrate your amazing season.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by LeelandS

Tyler has told us of how he had to stand in front of a room of students, parents and sponsors and tell them that all their hard work was for naught at the hands of someone who intentionally targeted their robot. I don't know what that would feel like. But I know I wouldn't be able to say it without tears in my eyes.

Also agreed.

But frankly, I'd rather be able to tell the parents, sponsors, and students that the team was intentionally targeted as opposed to returning to them and only being able to say "Whelp, FIRST has no idea what happened. We're SOL. Better luck next year?" To me, the connotation of "intentionally targeted" is "we were so good, that someone felt they had to resort to underhand tactics to beat us".

I'm not going to tell any team that went through what the 12 did to "suck it up", but I do think that they should step back and look at what they did. They made phenomenal robot and throughout the build process I'm sure that every student on all 12 teams learned something valuable this season. I feel that everyone can walk away from the situation knowing that they built (or funded) a first class robot that was capable of making it to Einstein, which is something most teams (and sponsors) can't say.

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by LeelandS

Where to we get off telling those teams how they should handle the situation? None of us were in the position of the 12 Einstein teams during these events. None of us stood behind those alliance stations and watched as the clock ticked to to the end of a very special event in a team's career that MIGHT happen every few years, IF YOU'RE EXTREMELY LUCKY.
<snip>
Those teams have had dreams stolen from them. IRI is a great place to compete, but it will no where near make up for the pain these teams have experienced. Dreams shattered. Spirits broken. Hopes smashed. How on Earth can anyone be justified in in telling them to not be upset at the situation?

Of course, I wasn't there either, so what do I know?

This. This x 1000.

To the majority of CD: we weren't on Einstein. We didn't have to go through this. To us (and excuse me for oversimplifying), it's like "hey, this crazy dude caused a bunch of other people's robots to die on the field. well that inhales audibly for them." However easy it is for us to shake off the recent events, it's infinitely harder for them. It was their blood, sweat, and tears that went into building something so glorious, but it was unfairly torn from them. Let me try and draw an imperfect parallel. Think of your grandpa, who fought in WWII. Many soldiers have some home never to speak of what happened again - it's too painful for them to recall and most people can't even fathom what they went through. However, he's perfectly able to talk with his fellow veterans about their shared experiences. Now I'm not relating the events on Einstein to global war, but I think the my point is valid: that these teams have gone through something most of us never will, and we simply are incapable of accurately judging the situation.
Sure, we can laugh it off as a bad luck or what have you, but their reactions show just how important FIRST is to them; they breathe it. And none of us should fault them for caring on such an emotional level. Let's give them space and support them as best we can. Some things take time to heal. This is something that will take lots.

To Karthik, Tyler, others on Einstein: Thank you for caring. Like I said above, I have no idea what you're going through, but it has to be a hellish experience. The amount of grace and class you've showed in response to this is outstanding, but that doesn't reduce the severity of what transpired. Celebrate the awesome things that happened, and endure through the bad. However, I offer my (insignificant) apologies and condolences.

To Andy: too soon, man, too soon.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Okay, I think this is obviously a subject that is still a little touchy for quite a few folks on both sides. I'm going to close this thread to let things cool down a little.