Michigan State Championship 2009

[Wayne TenBrink]

The "Verbrugge Cup" was a proposed name/trophy for the student contest.

I am neutral on a mentor event. I agree that whatever happens, the focus belongs on the students.

[NC GEARS]

Originally Posted by Jack Jones

This is supposed to be the State Championship event. Please don't let it degenerate into something else. It's supposed to be about the best FRC teams in the state going at it, not about a bunch of oldies trying to make themselves the center of attention.

Hey dude everyone just wants to have a little fun. It won't degenerat anything. Just a friendly competition between a few competitive teams.

[Jack Jones]

Originally Posted by NC GEARS

Hey dude everyone just wants to have a little fun. It won't degenerat anything. Just a friendly competition between a few competitive teams.

Right - only there's 64 teams that qualified, not just 6 -- dude!

[Adam Freeman]

Originally Posted by Jack Jones

Right - only there's 64 teams that qualified, not just 6 -- dude!

I agree. If this is going to happen it should be done tomorrow or not at all. I would think all the teams would be ok with this type of exibition if done some time during practice in the afternoon.

But, I do not want my drive team focusing on this Friday morning or afternoon. We will be busy concentrating on our strategy for our next match. We owe that to ourselves and out alliance partners.

Its for fun and hopefully does not offend any of the other teams that have qualified to attend.

- Adam

[scoutmasterlord]

great match would be (67,217,248) vs (1,201,245) i think the final scores be close and ether side could win.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Jack Jones

Right - only there's 64 teams that qualified, not just 6 -- dude!

How is this a bad thing? If nothing else it will show some of the newer students that FRC isnt about winning or loosing but about learning from each other. Add into that, my team didnt qualify for states, does it bother me that the top 3 East teams and the top 3 West teams want to have a friendly competition? Not at all. It gives me something to shoot for next year. You know, working with a small team in inner city Flint means that we have very little hope of ever playing on Einstein, to our kids (most of whom have never even been Championship) this could be their Einstein, this could be their goal. And you know, if giving the kids who can't afford to go all over the country to compete a goal is a bad thing, then that is just too bad.

As for the mentor match, it is just plain fun. Remember, all fun and no play stinks. Plus, this gives the coaches a chance to put their money where their mouth is, realize that the students have a hard job. Yes the focus needs to be on students, but I would rather see the students cheering on mentors than listening to some boring old politician (or school rep) babble on about something that they have ZERO interest in. (FIRST is important blah blah blah you are the future blah blah blah - Politician [school name] has a wonderful engineering program blah blah blah we support FIRST because we believe it is the future blah blah blah -School Rep These are in case you ever wondered what students hear during opening ceremonies) Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the support of these groups but talking for like 10 minutes is just plain irritating. Especially when they say the same thing time after time. But I digress.

Yes 64 teams qualified but the top 6 are the top 6. Nothing you say can or will change that, nor should it. Having seen many of these teams over the years I can tell you that the teams talking about this are not doing it for their egos. They are doing it because it could be fun to watch and to be in.

[Jack Jones]

[quote=Andrew Schreiber;844367]...

Yes 64 teams qualified but the top 6 are the top 6. Nothing you say can or will change that, nor should it. ...[quote]

Right again, but two of the teams in the proposed E v W are not even in the top 6. What makes them so special?

[prettycolors91]

I think that this thread has strayed far from it's original purpose. I don't understand the need to bicker and fight when we have a monumental and ground-breaking event coming up this weekend. I, for one, am very excited to see how it plays out!

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Jack Jones

Right again, but two of the teams in the proposed E v W are not even in the top 6. What makes them so special?

I misspoke, the 3 teams from Eastern Michigan with the best ranking and the 3 teams from Western Michigan with the top ranking. I apologize.

[Jack Jones]

So now maybe you see what I mean. It's the State Championship, not east vs west, or the UP vs the trolls. Having the top 64 go at it should be good enough - awesome in fact. Anything else is just a distraction.

[Kellen Hill]

It sounds like they are interested in having a just for fun match on the side that obviously people wouldn't have to watch. Of course it's still the State Championship. This match would have nothing to do with the actual event besides being in the same place. They are not trying to steal attention from anyone else. This would be like planning a match with your 5 other favorite teams. They wouldn't have to be the top teams. Just teams that you would like to play with in a match just for fun. I don't understand why this can't just be viewed as a fun thing on the side.

[Don Wright]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but I concur with Jack.

We in Michigan are already under scrutiny for how we are doing things different and how we are already making our events less "formal" and our own way. The Michigan State Championship event is being run in a traditional FIRST regional format and adding "fun" things like this just might be seen as another thing making us different from other events.

While I would actually love to see this dream match (or even be a part of it), I think we have enough off season events in MI where we can do whatever we want at and would rather we left the MSC to FIRST...

Plus, if they really wanted to see this, they would have carried the rankings into the event and used the rankings to set up the qualification rounds...

Just my humble opinion...

[Ryan Caldwell]

haven't we learned anything from Biggy and Tupac this east coast, west coast stuff has to end.....only in Michigan

[Alex Dinsmoor]

Originally Posted by scoutmasterlord

great match would be (67,217,248) vs (1,201,245) i think the final scores be close and ether side could win.

That would be epic! Rochester Hills teams (1 has a lot of RHS members) veurses the best does anyone else want to see a Rochester United alliance? Can you say AWESOME!!!

[Mike Copioli]

Originally Posted by Adam Freeman

Do we have to play 2 v. 3... or can we have a third partner? Doesn't seem fair to me the way it is proposed in the quote.

Team 217 and Team 67 requests the assistance of team 1114.