2009 IRI THANK YOU

[MissInformation]

To echo everyone else, thank you to the teams who planned, hosted and worked the event, especially those who had jobs that kept them away from all of the action on the field! That's a lot of work to do to create such a wonderful event for the rest of us, not to mention the money you raised for charity!

And thanks for the organizers for letting me volunteer as one of their photographers, it was absolutely amazing, even if I'm going to be editing photos for 3 days!

Congrats to all the award and scholarship winners!

Heidi

[Carol]

I agree with all of the previous posts. This was MOE's first trip to IRI and hopefully not the last. It was a very well run and organized tournament, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. (Maybe not the 12 hour bus ride, but that had a few good moments as well).

Thanks to 341 Miss Daisy for including us on their bus and transporting our robot - I'm glad I got the chance to get to know you all better.

Special thanks to those volunteers who helped me look through the garbage for our missing bag of team shirts (long story as to why we thought it was in the garbage). We did eventually find it; someone had put it in the hopper of our robot before it was loaded back on the trailer.

Thanks to the teams, especially Exploding Bacon and Frog Force, who helped us cheer on our team in the quarters. I hope you enjoyed learning how to use our wobblies! Our drivers commented on how nice it was to see the sea of green when they walked out on the field, much bigger than our small group of 15 people could do by ourselves.

Thanks to those who participated in the bidding war at the charity auction for our MOE shirt and assorted spirit gear (including MOE Stix), which ended up selling at the remarkable price of $90! (Did you hear us chanting GO FOR IT everytime someone stopped and look?)

And thanks to Exploding Bacon for allowing us to "taste" Indiana by giving us a box of White Castle Sliders. They are rare in the Delaware area.

[DiehardCybercard]

I am lucky enough to live within driving distance of Lawrence north high school, so i have the opportunity to help setup this wonderful event.

If anyone ever has the opportunity to help be a part of the IRI, do it. Being a part of IRI is one of the most awesome things ever. Meeting outstanding people like Steve Florance, Andy Baker, Mark Coors, Chris Fultz, and even Dave Lavery graced us with his presence.

Its an amazing event and it makes me smile knowing I help with it.

So if you have a chance to even just help set up the field, I would recommend you do it, its more fun that you would realize.

And thanks again to Chris Fultz and the the planning committee for putting together this amazing off season event.

[AndyB]

Big thank you to Chris Fultz, Andy Baker, and the rest of the IRI planning committee. Once again, you put on a fantastic event which left me with fantastic memories. Thank you to the volunteers as well. There is not enough I can say to truly express my appreciation for everyone who graced an orange or yellow IRI t-shirt this past weekend.

Lastly, thanks to team 1675 who graciously allowed me to tag along on their trip to Indiana. I had a fantastic time and I am glad to have met each and every one of you.

[MGoelz]

Thank you Jane! Cyber Blue is glad you enjoyed our little jig.

And thank you to everyone who came out to the IRI. It's always so exciting to see so many people come together, whether they're with a team or not, and enjoy themselves and partake in a wonderful off season event.

So thank you all!

[MadeAtMidnight]

I wanted to add my thanks also! Tonight our team met to unload the trailer and to discuss the weekend. We went around the room and asked for everyone's most memorable moments. It was quite a list that we came up with.

[Mr MOE]

As Carol had mentioned, this was MOE 365's first trip to IRI. What a terrific event. On behalf of all of MOE, thanks to all the volunteers who made the event run smoothly, especially those volunteers from teams 234, 45, and 1024.

Despite the field faults, I give credit to the field volunteers who moved as quickly as they could to move matches along to minimize the delays on Friday.

Thanks to CyberBlue 234 for selecting us at their back-up bot in elims. It was great being on the same alliance with your team and teams 71 and 503. We gave the event-winning alliance a run for their money. Congrats to 1625, 68, 469, and 16 for a very well-deserved win.

Thanks to all team members who kept the energy high the whole event. These were some of the best played Lunacy matches I have seen all year. IRI teams have demonstrated what Lunacy can be. Great job all!

And thanks to our bus-mates, Team 341. MOE greatly appreciates the opportunity to share a trip like this with your team. In today's economic climate, every little bit helps. We all should try to find ways to lessen our collective team expenses by collaborating. We thank you!

Great job by all. Apart from being flatter than we are used to in the East, the midwest is actually a pretty cool place.

[SushaK]

I would like to Thank everyone who worked so hard to make IRI 2009 happen. I definitely think this year was the best IRI year so far (well, out of the ones I attended). Also, the matches were very intense and really interesting to watch. I even enjoyed them more at IRI than at the Championships. Also thanks to all the teams who competed and made this event so awesome.

Also, I would like to thank Andy Baker and Chris Fultz for letting VizSeek and 80/20, Inc display their kiosks/gurney as well as for letting us promote the Contest INCITE. This Contest is really a great opportunity for teams to win great prizes that total up to $1500 with $500 of that being cash or a check to go toward the teams' robots for the 2010 season.

P.S. the contest is free for everyone to join, more info coming on CD soon

[David Brinza]

IRI becomes a better event each year. Chris, Andy and the rest of the IRI organizing team have created the "gem" of FIRST robotics competitions.

Team 980 had an unimaginably successful event. Of course, much of our success was due to our fantastic alliance partners throughout the competition. The experience of working with WildStang, Penn Robotics and the Tigertrons in the elimination rounds was amazing and educational.

Thanks to everyone who made this IRI very special to Team 980. We look forward to seeing you all next season!

[Meredith Novak]

Hats off, kudos, and THANKS to Chris, Sister Andy, 45, 234, and 1024. There are simply no teams in FIRST that make me say, "I wanna be that team" any more than Teams 45, 234, and 1024. I have never seen anyone from any of these groups act in a way that was not lovely and professional. It is no wonder that IRI is the stupendous, premier event that it is.

Thanks to 1625, 68, and 469 for allowing us to watch your back. Our youngsters had a thrilling time, but now we will have a real job convincing them that it usually takes a little more to win a Championship trophy than providing a human player and a couple of batteries.

[Travis Hoffman]

In addition to all the usual thank you's given to those who work so hard to make IRI such a great time, I'd like to add a few specific thanks:

• Thank you for bringing back the adult drive team matches in such an awesome manner. In one hour +, the old geezers on our alliance got to play seven matches (should have been only six, but my next bullet point covers that), 4 more than I had played in 3 IRI mentor rounds from 2004-2006. The opportunity to help out local charities in the process was just icing on the cake. Thanks to our alliance partners 217 and 47 for picking us and putting on a good show together.

• Thank you to the Copiolis for their patience and understanding after I pressured Paul's poor wife into committing a penalty by illegally shooting a 2nd supercell at the end of our first match , resulting in a tie. A perfect storm of bad timing, adrenaline, and oversight combined together such that I did not realize she had already shot and scored a supercell (sno-coning it on top of the vision target, no less!).

• Thank you to all those who helped out the pre-rookies in attendance at the IRI. I know our sponsored team, Innovators Robotics out of Dayton, spent hours working with the Team 379 mentors who came with us on the trip and learned a lot driving 379's (and eventually, 234's) robot. I do have one suggestion though - next year, if there aren't enough pre-rookies to fill out a full match card, I do hope the IRI folks can add more structure to the event, inviting veteran teams to participate in matches during the times the practice field is reserved for the challenge, helping give the pre-rooks a more complete match experience. I believe volunteers started doing this on Saturday, which is great.

[Chris Fultz]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

I do have one suggestion though - next year, if there aren't enough pre-rookies to fill out a full match card, I do hope the IRI folks can add more structure to the event, inviting veteran teams to participate in matches during the times the practice field is reserved for the challenge, helping give the pre-rooks a more complete match experience. I believe volunteers started doing this on Saturday, which is great.[/list]

Thanks for this. We actually planned to do this, and then (in a mr. obvious moment) learned that once you download the encription required to play on the main field, that you can no longer driver via remote control and your wireless router. Any IRI Teams on the practice field needed tethered...

We learned, and next time will have more "spare" robots on the field to make full matches.

It's always something, ain't it!