MARC 2010 IS OPEN

[Chas_G]

573 was another winner of the mentor matches =D

[nikeairmancurry]

Originally Posted by Chas_G

573 was another winner of the mentor matches =D

I thought so... Lol wasn't sure.... Edited on my last post...

[Jim Zondag]

The 2010 MARC was a great Event.
This is important to say, because without such a great group of volunteers, it might have been a disaster. Despite System Crashes, Data Losses, Power Interuptions, and Router Failures, they kept everything working and solved all of the problems. Dan Kimura, Keith Jones, Rob Jenkins, Steve Ketron, and a number of others worked tirelessly to keep this event running the whole weekend. Great Job!!!

Thanks to 1718 for picking us! It was great to win one with you. Awesome Robot.
Thanks to 1528 for hosting and for playing with us. Rebounds were the key to our victory.
Thanks to 326 for saving our butts in the Semis. Congrats Kevin for the Mentor Award, it was well deserved!

[Chas_G]

Originally Posted by nikeairmancurry

Winners-
team 574 (there you go =])

All I can remember...

There is no 574

[GaryVoshol]

Top rankings: 1718, 1243, 469, 33, 2834, 234, 548, 2704, 910, 2832, 1741

Alliances (drafted 1-8, 8-1, 1-8):
1 - 1718, 33, 326, 1528
2 - 1243, 469, 3115, 830
3 - 2834, 2337, 1732, 503
4 - 234, 910, 494, 3322
5 - 548, 2612, 1024, 1023
6 - 2704, 107, 51, 2338
7 - 2832, 573, 1918, 226
8 - 1741, 70, 1504, 461

QF:
1 - 8 (1, 1)
4 - 5 (4, 4)
2 - 7 (2, 7, 2)
3 - 6 (Tie, field failure, 3, 3)

SF:
1 - 4 (Tie, 1, 4, 1)
3 - 2 (3, 3)

(breaker blows at this point, causing a delay while the field is completely reset)

F:
1 - 3 (1, 1)

The finals took nearly 4 hours to complete - and we didn't even have any timeouts. Part of that was due to the great competitiveness of the teams causing ties and 3-match decisions. Awards were presented between the QF and SF and between the SF and F, because there's a bit of a delay there anyway while schedules are regenerated. I must commend all the teams for paying attention to my timing and getting the robots back onto the floor without any excessive delays. Despite being extremely hot and tired, everyone behaved admirably.

I too extend my thanks to the great technical personnel we have in MI. And to the event organizers for their great treatment of us volunteers!

[Craig Roys]

I would also like to thank Steve and Team 1528 for hosting the event. This event keeps getting better each year. Also thanks to all the volunteers for their work keeping things going dispite the difficulties. I thought the reffing was very well done - thanks Gary for your patience as we tried to get our robot back up and running...of course we then had the field issues that caused the big delay - it was definitely a hurry up and wait scenario for us.

From the mentor matches:
Thanks (I think ) to 573 for loaning us the skirts - they'll make for some good embarrasing photos. I think we have a bunch up on facebook already.
Thanks to 1918 - It was good to win one with you guys.
It may have only been mentor matches, but believe me when I say everyone was out there to win and they were some very competitive matches as evidenced by a 14-11 final match.

From the real tournament:
Thanks to 33. We love working with you guys - the double hangs are fun. It took until the offseason, but both of us have finally been able to get a win!
Thanks to 1528 for your rebounding. As Jim said, it was a key to us being able to win.
Thanks to 326 for saving us in the semis - we were doomed without you. It's too bad we weren't able to have you in there more.

Lastly, I need to thank my pit crew for rebuilding one of our toughbox transmissions during eliminations - and we only missed one match w/out using a timeout! Thanks to Jack Jones and 2612 for having the spare toughbox parts available. Oh yeah, at the same time we had to do some patchwork on a weld the broke loose so we could continue to hang - thanks Isaac for your help on that. It seems when you get to 100+ matches things start to wear down - go figure. We definitely have some work to do to get our robot ready for IRI, but we'll be ready.

[kenavt]

Personally, I have to say MARC was probably my favorite competition yet this year. It was great to run around between the air-conditioned pits and the gym watching matches, and meet people. The guys from 503 rapping the FIRST rap was amazing during eliminations, and we made an awesome run to the finals, where we lost to 33, 1718, 1528, and 326.

Our alliance:
Team 2834 - Thanks for picking us, and putting away the mess everyone else would leave in the near zone!
Team 1732 - Thanks for playing D and having our backs when 2834 and our bot were completely ignoring you in the mid and near zones!
Team 503 - Thanks for winning the quarterfinals for us. Without you guys, we would have never made it to the semifinals, and then to the finals.

And thanks to Steve Ketron and his army... er... group of volunteers who managed the FMS extraordinarily well AND passed out popsicles at the end!

[JackN]

What another amazing event. It has grown so much from the 12 teams that originally participated. The competitiveness for this offseason event is not really rivaled by anything.

I would like to thank teams 2834, 1918 and 2612 for giving us sprockets and bolts after we shattered not one but two over the course of an hour. It is teams like yours that make FIRST what it is.

Also a big thanks to 1741, 70 and 461 for forming a great alliance with us. We played the #1 alliance extremely well, but it was not to be. Congrats to 33, 1718, 1528 and 326, you guys had a great alliance and all really played well this weekend.

Steve and the rest of the volunteers continue to put on an amazing event, I can't wait to be back here next year.

[Steve Ketron]

Congrats and thank you to all that came to this event. It was great to see everyone not only compete but also socialize at the same time. I think we all made some new friends.

The event has grown to 42 teams and I think this is the right number for our event and I will keep it there for good. The excellent group of volunteers we have made this an outstanding event and I would like to commend all of them for thier hard work in making MARC such a success. MARC would be nothing without your professionalism and drive. THANK YOU ALL.

People that desrve special Thanks:
Lisa Perez- You again did an oustanding job in organizing the volunteers and selecting the right people for the right job. Who would have been able to predict the field issues? But I think you knew something when you got us three FTA's. You make my planning so much easier. THANK YOU SO MUCH

Gary Voshol- I have heard nothing but great compliments on the reffing that your team did. With the field issues happening, your team constantly kept your cool and was thinking of the event participants. Excellent job and hope you all can come back.

FTA's: (Keith Jones, Dan Kimura, Alex Fera): This trio did an excellent job in maintaining the field with some really wierd problems happening. Thank you for your hard work and dedication. The communication between you and the head ref was awesome. Freat Job guys.

Maria Perez: Thank you so much for everything. We had some serious issues happen and you were right there taking charge. Awesome job and again thank you. I am sure a few parents would also like to thank you. By the way that student is doing great. He was out by 2:30.

Ed (KoKo) Patterson: our event has grown every year and you have been there leading the way in queing. This is a very difficult job and you have made it look easy while also helping come up with ways to make it run smoother. Thank you for everything.

Congratulations to the following award receipients:
Mentor Recognition: Kevin Gay (team 326)
Planners Volunteer of the Year: Jack (the Drill Sergant) Jones (team 2612)
Tenneco Engineering Inspiration: 910
Humanitarian Award: 1741
Spitit Award: 2337
Animation Award: 1528
Finalist: 2834,2337,1732,503
Champions: 1718,33,326,1528
Mentor Champions: 573,1718,1918

The events was awesome. I enjoyed being able to socialize with everyone and hope to see you all again next year.

[mcb]

This was my first time going to MARC and I have to say that it was a great experience. With our now-sophomore students taking up the roles of the seniors leaving the team (including the driveteam) everyone from 1732 really learned a lot and had a fun time at the tournament.

Congrats to 1718, 33, 1528, and 326 - you all made an alliance that was really a force to be reckoned with. It was great playing you in the finals.

2834 - thanks for choosing us for your alliance. You were really amazing in the near zone and a great team all around.
2337 - your strategist did a great job in helping our alliance to get as far as we did. Great job in the middle zone; the ball-redirecting capability your robot had was definitely key!
503 - you did a great job in that last finals match. The red alliance was certainly a tough one, especially for our alliance's robot in the third zone, and we couldn't have done it without you.

Thanks to 1528 and everyone who made MARC possible. I hope to come back again!

[johnr]

Thanks for the webcast. I know that there wasn't many of us watching but it was appreciated. If you do it again next year maybe you can get one camera for the entire field. Thanks again.

[XaulZan11]

I would like to thank 503 and 2337 for being our partners in the mentor matches. I know I am shocked, embarrassed and disappointed that our students could get further than we could .

Big thanks to everyone who worked on making MARC such a successful offseason competition. It is a little crazy to think how fast it has grown since the first year.

[apalrd]

The MARC was awesome.
It was my first time driving in competition, since our normal driver was on vacation, and it was awesome to drive and win.
Thanks to our partners who were all awesome, and all of the teams who we beat, since you guys were all tough competition.

It was also cool watching some of the mentors play. Woody and Jim and Isaac (mentor drive team), you guys did great.

[fuzzwaz]

MARC was a blast! We still have no idea what is wrong with our robot. Lets just say everything broke down... Drive train, electrical, and even our kicker got messed up and we still dont know why...

-To our alliance members we thank you dearly. Thanks for seeing that even though we were 42nd out of 42 teams we had potential.

2337- We love you guys! And we were with you guys for the mentor matches aswell . We are truely sorry about what happend during the finals but we want to say congrats for going so far in elims!

2834- You guys have an amazing robot and can score in ways we cant even attempt... lol. Thanks again for giving us a shot and we hope to see alot more from you guys at IRI

1732- You guys got taken out during that last match and to watch our robot enter "epic fail" mode as I like to call it must have been rlly tough . Just remember that you guys were truely deserving of the finalist role and we are thankful for your support.

910- FTW! lol We love you guys

573- One day we will be on the same alliance... one day...

Thanks again everyone and I hope to see you all at IRI and in the future!!!

[Wayne TenBrink]

The NC GEars had a great time at MARC 2010. It was a lot of fun and a great chance for some of our younger members to take the lead. Winning the mentor matches with 1718 and 573 was a riot (even if they did coerce us into wearing those skirts), and now we can pretend like we know what we are doing when we offer advice to the real drivers!

Thanks to 2832 for picking us and 573 and 226 for playing so strong in the playoffs.

Great big thanks to Steve Ketron and all the volunteers who put the event together and brought it off so smoothly. You set a high standard for off season events!

Oh, yeah - and the pig roast was wonderful.

Hope to see you at the WMRI on October 9 in Zeeland!