[NE FIRST] 2014 Southington District Event

[AndrewMorrison]

Originally Posted by esquared

The toughest part about that Chairman's Award was the fact that someone was cutting onions in the stands near 558/on the field while it was being read out. At least that was the excuse I'm going to use

Eric,

This was such a great moment for our team, that I think most of us would own up to it.
We had such a great time this past weekend in Southington, and for it to end the way it did... well it was amazing.


As always we caught up with old friends, made some new ones, and came home with a lot of great memories - and even more motivation to expand our program.

Thank you to all that were involved in making this such a great event.

[loyal]

In one of the last matches, I'm not sure of the number. It looked like 175 was pinned for longer than 5 seconds. Was I mistaken? Perhaps the two robots were dancing around in the same direction.

[Jon K.]

Even though I was only able to referee for Sunday (my team was competing at RIDE), I want to congratulate everyone on all their amazing successes at Southington! I only heard positive things about the whole event from everyone I have talked to! I know we as a ref crew definitely had some hard calls to make as the matches were very intense. Congrats 195, 558 and 999 on the win, as well as 230, 2836 and 4055 on the finalist. Also, congrats to everyone on 558 for the District Event Chairman's win. I know first hand how much everyone on your team does, and it is a well deserved honor that was given to you here. Also, congrats to my dad, Jack in the Hat, for receiving Volunteer of the Year! Even though my father was recognized for his outstanding efforts in the FIRST community this year, he by far is not the only volunteer to go above and beyond. Thank you to all of the volunteers this year! Out of all the years I have been involved in FIRST, since 2000 as an FLL kid, I know this year has been difficult on all of us in New England. Just like we endure the long winters, we will persevere through it! I am so excited to see so many new faces on these volunteer crews!

[smurfgirl]

Originally Posted by loyal

In one of the last matches, I'm not sure of the number. It looked like 175 was pinned for longer than 5 seconds. Was I mistaken? Perhaps the two robots were dancing around in the same direction.

The refs reset our minds after each match, so I can't say that I remember any particular instant anymore, and I may not have been watching that area of the field. But I will say that we had all hands on deck (6 refs + 1 head ref) during the finals, and we were watching very carefully for pinning and other penalties. Most likely if it appeared to be pinning but wasn't called that way, 175 was considered to have a way out or wasn't trapped or wasn't backing away when they had the chance or something like that. Again, I can't pick out this particular instance in my mind, but I promise we were being as attentive as possible.

[Stephen.Yanczura]

I think the refs absolutely crushed it at this event. Fantastic job done by all expecially in light of the 11th hour rule update.

I was not always happy with the way the chips fell on some calls, but after reading through the rule book after each - I agreed that I would have called it the same way.

REALLY appriciate the effort - this game demands it.

[swootton]

Where can I start? First off I'd like to thank everyone for their positive remarks and especially for comments from our two alliance partners teams 2836 and 230 and all three of the winning alliance teams, 195, 558 and 999. We never thought we would make it as far as we did but our partners proved to be all we expected when we picked them and then some.

The matches were all great, the competition was fierce and the CyberKnights ran a great event!!!!

Thanks to all the teams, volunteers, judges and everyone else that made this weekend happen.

Not only was the two ball hitting each other over the truss unexpected, what about the ball on top of the truss wobbling back and forth?

Also we would like to thank team 181 Birds of Prey for welding our pickup arm together the weekend before Southington. We could not have does this well without your help. Thank You, Thank You!!!!