Sabotage

[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.
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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.