2009 Troy District Event

[JNelson]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

You guys are the one of the greatest things to happen to Michigan/FIRST. We sat next to you in the stands at Traverse City and I was dumb struck when you won a rookie award. I didn't think you were rookies at all! Thanks for everything you have done this year. I know the parents of the kids on our team appreciate the chance to see their kids compete.

Thanks Eric. Our students have set some pretty high goals, and one of them is to have absolute blast at the competitions.

We had a great time at Traverse City and liked being next to the Yeti's. We enjoyed your mascot, your chants and your cool students. Your team made a big statement at TC. I hope we get to see 857 in more competitions next year.

I know it's not easy for you to come all the way down from the U.P. to be part of the action. I think Traverse City will be a must for us next near, so maybe we'll see you there in 2010. Please cheer for us at West Michigan - there will be some great teams there.

[IKE]

Let me be the first to congratulate 67, 217, and 3119 on a spectacular job at Troy. Way to go guys.

To 3119 especially. Nice job. Your faith is rewarded with a victory. Congratulations! I hope you guys took notes, becuase you just got to work with a couple of teams that could win the championship!

[GaryVoshol]

Don't forget 3095, who was selected by the alliance and played in one round before they elected to call in the backup bot.

[IKE]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

Don't forget 3095, who was selected by the alliance and played in one round before they elected to call in the backup bot.

Yep, I just found that out after my post. I was not at Troy so I just got the whole story.

Congratulations also to 3095.

[Herodotus]

Big congrats to 67, 217, 3095 and especially 3119. We've been watching you guys closely during the season and are overjoyed that you managed to win a district event. And I hope you all realize that you did not ride on the coattailes of 67 and 217. There were several matches that would have been loses without your incredible defense. In fact I'm willing to put out there that you guys have the best defense in Michigan, at least.

Big thanks to 94 for selecting us and 308 for joining us as well. It was a pleasure working with you and we had a good run. A few things different here and there might have led us even farther, but no one can say we didn't put our best foot forward.

Thank you to the Judges for another Xerox Creativity Award! We really appreciate the design awards such as Xerox and are as proud of them as we would be of a district win. Congratulations to everyone else who won awards, especially 217 on the well deserved Chairman's award and and 3119 on the Rookie Inspiration award. You guys are both fantastic teams and deserve the awards.
We'll see everyone at states, and good luck.

[Zach O]

Troy was great! There were tons of amazing teams that were fun to watch, and vending was much cheaper No EMS/Fire alarms this time, what was good considering the venue was multileveled. There wasn't much room to walk, and the pits were confusing because they were in no real order, but it was a GREAT facility. There was more then enough seating, and I hope they host again!

[roboraven15]

Great job 67, 217, and 3119 for a great win! 217 nice job with a chairmans win aswell! We had some really epic matches there in the semi's, we definatly didn't wanna leave lol. Anyways thanks to our alliance partners 1250 and 326, we were great together comunicating and all of us were strong dumpers and good defense, great alliance. Hopefully we'll see you all at states!

[Jablonski@1250]

Hey 1188-
Thanks and Great Job to you and 326. It was great to beat 217 and 67's alliance once during semi's. Best match ever-even if we did get knocked out of the running.

[Enli]

This was probably one of the craziest couple of days of my life. If it gets any more intense - and I know it will - I'm going to put my cardiologist on standby.

I'm speaking on my own here - I'm no spokesperson, that's for sure, but...

We appreciate everything that everyone has done for us - Ike (on Loan from the Incredible Killer Bees) and the Fantastic Foley Freeze (who has made us feel like family), Nick S. (Property of GM, doncha know), BAE Systems and Gail Alpert (our start in all of this), DTE Energy for their support and the loan of our husband/wife team of engineers, Nick and Anita, the Wonderful Mr. Whidby - so many people absolutely defining gracious professionalism for our kids. I know I missed some - simply because everything has gone by in a blur. So many encouraging words and actions - people with wrenches and advice, a pat on the back and a kick in the rear - all offering a push in the right direction.

Your kind words and your kinder hearts mean the world to all of us.

Oh, yeah and - what a RIOT!

[FoleyEngineer]

What a great weekend!

To anyone from FIRST reading this... the new Michigan District Structure is IT! After having been from everything from tons of off-season competitions to playing on Einstein, I can say that this new structure is absolutely bar-none the way to go! We played in over 50 matches for $5,500! That's crazy talk! What fun! The Troy venue was wonderful - lots of room in the pits, HUGE practice field with multiple tables with power and hubs, lots of seating, huge cafeteria, and well, how can I put it, just the best darn group of refs, judges and volunteers you could ever ask for - anywhere! We finished early every day and things were as smooth as clockwork!

To 217 - Knocking the king (67) off of their 37 0 1 throne was a blast! Congrats on your win and the chairman's. Awesome bot guys! So versatile!!!

To 67 - Setting the high score with us 2 against 3 was exhilarating to say the least! Your bot is so smooth and well driven - it's poetry in motion. Congrats on your third #1! Now Tom has to shave half his mustache off! Can't wait to see that one at states! "Remember us when you're rich and famous eh?"

To 3119 - Working with you at our place and helping you get started could not have been more rewarding! Your semifinal place at Detroit and now first place at Troy lock you in for states! I know you might not be able to afford it, but we'd sure love to see you there - what a great group of people! Plus, your drive team was SUPER in those finals, and your human player hit that awesome supercell to win it! Way to go your guys! Congrats!

Thanks SO MUCH to all the volunteers, judges, of of course the refs. Really professional job. I never heard or had one complaint the entire event. Awesome!

[Btower]

Originally Posted by FoleyEngineer

What a great weekend!

To anyone from FIRST reading this... the new Michigan District Structure is IT!
..........
Thanks SO MUCH to all the volunteers, judges, of of course the refs. Really professional job. I never heard or had one complaint the entire event. Awesome!

Agree 100%. Huge thanks need to go to Team 226, Athens HS, all the volunteers, all the teams that helped with set up and Teardown including the Athens Football Team and the Troy High Football Team, there is just no way to thank everyone. This was by far the smoothest running event I have ever been associated with. We had one bout of confusion with a restarted match, which was 100% my fault. (A lesson in why micromanaging doesn't work)
Athens High School was fantastic to work with, especially so since we took over all their indoor phys ed facilities much of their parking and generally mobbed their school during two regular school days. Many of the classrooms in the school were even watching the Code Red webcast.

The size of the venue was perfect. We packed the stands, the energy level was awesome, the pits were huge, the competition was amazing.
Overall, this is what it should be everywhere.

P.S. A special thanks to the VIP Guides, my Mom & Pop just won't shut up about how nice, professional, informative and impressive you guys were.

[Don Wright]

First of all...as mentioned many times before and after, I'm sure...thanks to many of the volunteers running the event. It was awesome...

Just a couple of things that really annoyed me at this event that I hope we can nip in the bud... It has nothing to do with the Troy event, or events in general, but just some behavior from some teams...

1st... This annoying new habit of yelling "ROBOT" or "ROBOT COMING THRU" at the top of your lungs constantly even when nobody is anywhere around you. This was even usually happening with many team members at the same time

This only does two things:

When there really is a reason to move out of the way because you need to get your robot thru, nobody is going to listen because you've been yelling it every 15 minutes and we are learning that you just like hearing your own voice..

And, when other teams are trying to talk in their pit or talk to judges, it is extremely annoying and disruptive for absolutely NO reason.

I completely understand if the pits are packed and there are hundreds of people in the aisles and you need to get thru to do this so you can clear out a way, but we all know this definitely NOT the case at Troy since it was the most spacious pits I can ever remember. And it's not like these robots are driving autonomously thru the pits and halls... I feel more danger at my local grocery store getting hit my a grocery cart...

And 2nd...

To all the overzealous "Safety Captains"... Let's take it down a notch. We all know how to use doors...and look out for people or robots...and we don't need escorts to our pits so we don't get hurt.

I understand you want to win the safety award...but you are going so overboard you are making the safety aspect of the event a joke.

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by Don Wright

1st... This annoying new habit of yelling "ROBOT" or "ROBOT COMING THRU" at the top of your lungs constantly even when nobody is anywhere around you. This was even usually happening with many team members at the same time

This only does two things:

When there really is a reason to move out of the way because you need to get your robot thru, nobody is going to listen because you've been yelling it every 15 minutes and we are learning that you just like hearing your own voice..

And, when other teams are trying to talk in their pit or talk to judges, it is extremely annoying and disruptive for absolutely NO reason.

I completely understand if the pits are packed and there are hundreds of people in the aisles and you need to get thru to do this so you can clear out a way, but we all know this definitely NOT the case at Troy since it was the most spacious pits I can ever remember. And it's not like these robots are driving autonomously thru the pits and halls... I feel more danger at my local grocery store getting hit my a grocery cart...

And 2nd...

To all the overzealous "Safety Captains"... Let's take it down a notch. We all know how to use doors...and look out for people or robots...and we don't need escorts to our pits so we don't get hurt.

I understand you want to win the safety award...but you are going so overboard you are making the safety aspect of the event a joke.

I agree with both things mentioned. In fact my team decided to just yell random foods because we were so sick of hearing ROBOT for 10 hours a day. Plus it reduced some of the tension and relaxed my drive team.

As for the safety captain escorts it ended up just slowing down the flow in the hallways for robots and spectators.

[dwaynetrip3119]

Originally Posted by FoleyEngineer

What a great weekend!

To anyone from FIRST reading this... the new Michigan District Structure is IT! After having been from everything from tons of off-season competitions to playing on Einstein, I can say that this new structure is absolutely bar-none the way to go! We played in over 50 matches for $5,500! That's crazy talk! What fun! The Troy venue was wonderful - lots of room in the pits, HUGE practice field with multiple tables with power and hubs, lots of seating, huge cafeteria, and well, how can I put it, just the best darn group of refs, judges and volunteers you could ever ask for - anywhere! We finished early every day and things were as smooth as clockwork!

To 217 - Knocking the king (67) off of their 37 0 1 throne was a blast! Congrats on your win and the chairman's. Awesome bot guys! So versatile!!!

To 67 - Setting the high score with us 2 against 3 was exhilarating to say the least! Your bot is so smooth and well driven - it's poetry in motion. Congrats on your third #1! Now Tom has to shave half his mustache off! Can't wait to see that one at states! "Remember us when you're rich and famous eh?"

To 3119 - Working with you at our place and helping you get started could not have been more rewarding! Your semifinal place at Detroit and now first place at Troy lock you in for states! I know you might not be able to afford it, but we'd sure love to see you there - what a great group of people! Plus, your drive team was SUPER in those finals, and your human player hit that awesome supercell to win it! Way to go your guys! Congrats!

Thanks SO MUCH to all the volunteers, judges, of of course the refs. Really professional job. I never heard or had one complaint the entire event. Awesome!

Thank you very much also. You guy really helped us in getting our robot together and I also saw your team cheering for us when we were in the finals. We really wanted to win that district so much on account of what happened that week before. We are really praying and keeping our hopes up that we will be able to afford the state championship. I really hope to see you guys there ad we really give it the best we have. Shout out to your team also. You guys have like such a awsome robot and such and organized team. I envy teams like you guys and 67 and 217. We want to just do our best and win. We will see you guys thursday or friday.

[dwaynetrip3119]

Originally Posted by IKE

Let me be the first to congratulate 67, 217, and 3119 on a spectacular job at Troy. Way to go guys.

To 3119 especially. Nice job. Your faith is rewarded with a victory. Congratulations! I hope you guys took notes, becuase you just got to work with a couple of teams that could win the championship!

I would especially like to thank you guys so much for your help. Isaac Rife you are truly one of the best things to happen to 3119. You had hope in us and you took time to come out and help us out. I have so much respect for you and words cant really explain how i feel. You and the killer bees and the Foley Freeze are truly the best. You guys deserve the Chairmans Award and the Gracious Professionallism Award,Times 100.
I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!