2009 Detroit District Event

[FoleyEngineer]

I've got to say that the first time The Foley Freeze attended the Detroit event was a blast! We ended up 9 and 3, and 4th seed. The picking went a bit strangely with a lot of "No Thank Yous" and we picked two partners (1856 and 2620) and made it to the finals before bowing out to the great alliance of 818, 66 and 515. The double-teaming of us during all 3 of the finals matches was a great strategy that made us really work for every point. The matches were SO close and fun to play! What a terrific group of people to lose to - including the Chairman's award winner! We're REALLY happy for all of you and hope we get the chance to be on the same side of the field as you next time!

Congrats to our partners 1856 and 2620 for such hard fought battles. You performed just great and we had a blast playing with you!

Finally, to Ron, Gary, Dan, Ronnie, Mark and all the volunteers, judges and refs - fantastic job! Thank's for the Creativity Award too! Sweet! The whole event was as smooth as any regional and so wonderfully run and officiated. Jim - you've got a new career in announcing if the automotive thing doesn't work out for you ;-) Nice job! To all of you... THANK YOU SO MUCH!

See some of you next week at Troy and if we can scrounge up the 4 grand - we'll see you at States! We've got 79 qualifying points so I guess we're in if we can come up with the money.

I just LOVE this new First In Michigan system. We've played 34 matches *so far* this year for our $5,000 and still have a dozen or more to look forward to at Troy next week for only $500 more. 46+ matches for $5,500? Wow! It's AWESOME!

John

[Herodotus]

Wowzers! What a fantastic competition. Anyone who missed the Eliminations missed some really competitive and tenacious matches. The defense was crazy, and the team work through the roof.

First off a huge thank you to all of the volunteers, referees, field personnel. This event was superbly run. It was really a quality event, with few problems overall. A shout out to Jim Zondag, too. Great announcing and I felt like you really managed to pump up the crowd, especially during eliminations.

Congratulations to 818, 66, and 515. You were a great alliance, and the craziest matches we've ever had. You guys were just unrelenting in those matches, and trying to fight away from the blockade of robots you put up was some of the toughest driving our drive team has had to endure I do believe. You are all class act teams, and you definitely deserve the win. Thank you to all of the kind words from 818 especially. Your team is the definition of gracious professionalism and we had a ton of fun competing with you.

A huge thanks to 1856 and 2620. You were fantastic alliance partners and a real joy to work with. We had a bit of a rough start in our First match and some close calls throughout but we put ourselves out there and managed to almost go the whole distance. Considering the alliance we were against in the finals I'm proud of all three of our teams.

A special shout out to team 3119 again. Semi- finalists? Wow, fantastic work guys. Props to your driver, some of the best defensive driving on the field. When we had the chance to play together you were great alliance partners and I think your team has a number of awesome years ahead of it. I'm sure you'll be even better at Troy, so I look forward to seeing you there.

Thank you to the Judges for the Xerox Creativity Award as well. It's definitely an honor to win, and we were absolutely thrilled to have been chosen for this award.

Congrats to team 66, the Flyers, on the District Chairman's award. You guys are highly deserving of this award and one of our favorite teams to work with (and compete against.)


I feel like there are more thank yous and congrats I should be mentioning but I could probably be here all night and mention every team. I saw nothing but awesome and competitive matches involving gracious, professional, helpful, and kind teams. Thanks to all of them for such a great competition, and we'll be seeing some of you in Troy and States. Good luck out there!

[Enli]

It was astounding. We were definitely scrambling all the way, and heaven knows, if not for the helping hands of so many we'd have been in a world of hurt, but this was a fantastic experience, truly fantastic and I am so proud of my students and my poor overworked husband.

Ike, everyone at Bishop Foley, Nick S., Team 2620, 3097 Kettering - just a few of the wonderful people that made it happen for us. You're an amazing bunch!

[IKE]

I was curious how different a district Detroit would be from a Regional Detroit. Competitions wise, Detroit is still one of those defensive juggernaut tournaments. I saw a really cool technique. Since most scoring bots only score from the front of their machine, instead of running away, many would be victims turned around an punched these scorers right in the nose. Supercells also seemed tobe more pivotal at this event than events past.

Congratulations to the victors, and the almosts. I love to see a finals match go to 3!

[Karibou]

Detroit was a GREAT competition. Lots of competitive teams, and some VERY close matches.

Thank you to all of the volunteers who made the event happen. You all kept everything running very smoothly and did a great job with everything! These events wouldn't be possible without you.

Congrats to 818, 66, and 515. What a great alliance! You really kicked some bot out there on the field, and from the few matches that I got the chance to see (SOMEONE has to help pack up the robot...), there were some amazing plays. Congratulations also to 910, 1856 (the other Gearheads XD), and 2620 for some well-fought battles.

Congrats to 66 on the District Chairman's. You have a fabulous program, and there's no doubt that you deserve it.

Thank you to alliance partners 280 (TnT) and 835 (The Sting). You were great partners, and we were honored to be chosen by you. We lost in the early matches, but we lost to the alliance that ended up taking the District Champions title for themselves. The two matches that we had together were great, and I look forward to competing with and against you next year.

And finally, thank you to the judges for the wonderful Gracious Professionalism award. We like it a lot (I can't think of much more to say about it without sounding egotistical...heh)

[web_master_dpep]

Thank you all for your comments. 910 it would have been nice to be on the same side as you, we were actually kinda worried when we went up against you guys. Good luck to everyone hopefully we will see you at states.

P.S. If you are coming to states, feel free to stop by our pit to drop off any old or dead batteries for recycling.

[JoeXIII'007]

Echoing my friend here, thanks for the congratulations everybody!!! Seeing how things went, I am thinking about will be asking off of work to attend the State Championship ~2 weeks from now. Wasnt able to come to competition this time due to college work (bleh!) and etc. But will be coming in 2 weeks.

Good Luck to everyone, and will see y'all at competition.

[Btower]

Wow,
The competition was fantastic. This was my first of the new district events. After being field supervisor at Detroit since we started the regional 6 years ago, this was really one of the smoothest running. I really don't think having the full blown sound and light crew was missed, (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), the teams really stepped up and helped with set up and teardown. This year nearly everything was volunteer driven, from floor covering in the pits, drapes around the field, generator and electrical, just about everything. Huge thanks to Temetria and Jeff for getting it all organized, huge thanks to the teams that helped with set up and teardown. With tons of helpers and the elimination of the huge light and sound systems we were set up and torn down in about 1/2 the time. The low cost district model requires tons of help from the teams and you guys and girls have really stepped up.

Thanks to all, now on to Troy.

PS. lots of great pics at Daniel Ernst's Flicker Site

[MrFixIt2719]

hello again i started a post last week about the cass tech event and now i am stating one for detroit district event.

i wanna throw out a huge congrats to 818,66,515 for putting on one the best matches i have seen in a while and a huge congrats to 910,2620,1856 for putting up a really tough fight i wish you all the luck in your other district events to come.

i also want to thank team 2612,and 3115 for there best efforts on our qaurter final fight against 548,201,and 3119

and the event was extra special due to the enthusiastic presense of the man "DEAN KAMEN" he really made the event more crazy

[440kid]

Best Event Ever!!!!!

[Jason Joye]

This was the third district event I attended this year and I have to agree that this seemed to be the smoothest run event yet. Thank you to all of the volunteers and the planning committee for organizing such a wonderful event. Compared to past Detroit Regional there were more teams in attendance, there was more seating, and a lot more energy. Congratulations to all of the teams, award winners, and Woodie Flowers nominees.