pic: TEAM 498, 80, and 696 (FINALISTS)

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by DanielBCR

Congrats to you three. The gracious professionalism that was shown by you guys was truly amazing. It is good that FIRST awarded you three the sportsmanship. I wish that we had three more gracious professionalism trophies that we could award you. You are an inspiration to us all.

-Daniel

Thanks for the compliments. I am a proud hater of malicious amateurism you know. What we did I know is something that some other teams would not have done in the situation, but when the time was taken to see the faces of our opponents, and see countless hours over several late nights, and the dedication and devotion and the truly great people they are, there was no question in our mind that we would allow them to play. My team along with many others is a strong supporter of a good set of rules and sticking to them. But in this case, the pure energy in the arena did something strange. The rules were morphed, and for the better, not the worse. I really just cannot describe it. I heard all three national anthoms, and heard Jesse McGuire (sp?) on that trumpet, and I remembered this when the 6 minute time limit expired and I felt great about what we were going to do. This game is not about minutes, it is about people, people who care. One of my team mates said to a judge, the match is only two minutes but that decision will last a lifetime. And a good decision it was.

I would like to personally thank the FIRST staff at the regional for allowing us to "bend" the rules and let 330 play. They truly deserved it.

This is really embarrassing to say, and if you don't care about these things you may laugh, but I almost cried when they put their robot back on the field, not because I was sad we would lose, but because I was happy they would win.

These are the kind of moments that make FIRST what it is. And I hold FIRST and Dean Kamen personally responsible for making me a more productive citizen, and making this already great world an even better place.