Question: What was the first FIRST competition you attended?

[Pat Fairbank]

My FIRST competition was the 2002 Canadian Regional...

I was actually recruited to the team in 2001, as an animator, but since I was underage (high school is from grades 7-11 here in Quebec) I never even saw the robot, let alone went to a competition.

The next year, since I was a very dedicated member of the animation team, I got to go to the first ever Canadian regional. I remember thinking to myself that since I didn't do any work with the robotics team proper I wouldn't find it very exciting and would have nothing to do. I was wrong.

I was handed a video camera and told to film a few matches. I ended up filming about 7 hours of the most exciting stuff I had ever seen. Our team didn't do very well in the regional, due to the fact that we spent most of our time getting the robot to a working state. But I still had a great time, and watching an all American alliance being defeated by an all Canadian alliance in the finals left me with a sense of victory nonetheless.

That regional gave me the feeling of wanting to make a difference within my team, and as a result the next year, 2003, I threw myself with a passion into the aspects other than animation, and I became the programmer, the wiring expert, and the driver.