Florida Off-season, Mayhem @ The Museum

[techtiger1]

Originally Posted by BurningQuestion

Good luck with Mayhem, Arefin! Many of us have you in our thoughts and prayers, and we are all wishing you and the rest of the crew the best of luck, and safety from Dennis. Hope everything is going smoothly!

-- Jaine, the Perotti family, and the rest of CD.

Jaine thank you so much that means a world to us and the crew. So far so good wish us luck for Saturday.

-Drew and the crew.

[tiffany34990]

well tis be a first fun day at off season... the sun was shining and it was hot and muggy but w/ the 12 teams and all we had tons of fun of course... FIRST events are never boring for sure... tytus dancing on the segway was intresting (sry tytus it is caught on tape... )...and mike walker doing his thing...

hats off to the off season crew for doing a lot of work and the museum and sponosors...

i'm having fun so you guys are doing a good job...

i think the most fun i had was babysitting arefin's vex bot should have taken it home with me to play and bring it back

and everyone was driving other people's bot which was fun to see too...

[Bharat Nain]

Congratulations Arefin on your dream come true

[Adam Richards]

Great off season event! Props to Arefin for getting it off the ground today, even though the weather (hurricane) was threatening it. Great job Arefin!

Thanks to 233 for the pick and 1083 for trying to hold on in the final round while our arm got locked and Pink's gear switcher broke. Also thanks to 108 SigmaC@T for their backup battery so that we could play in the final rounds. Much appreciated all!

Congrats to 1523 (M.A.R.S.), 1251 (Techtigers), and 1390 (Weletthedogsout) on their win! Maybe our alliances might have a rematch sometime...

[Cowmankoza]

Originally Posted by Adam Richards

Great off season event! Props to Arefin for getting it off the ground today, even though the weather (hurricane) was threatening it. Great job Arefin!

Thanks to 233 for the pick and 1083 for trying to hold on in the final round while our arm got locked and Pink's gear switcher broke. Also thanks to 108 SigmaC@T for their backup battery so that we could play in the final rounds. Much appreciated all!

Congrats to 1523 (M.A.R.S.), 1251 (Techtigers), and 1390 (Weletthedogsout) on their win! Maybe our alliances might have a rematch sometime...

Thanks, and great job to you guys too, when i saw your alliance i never thought we'd pull it off, you gave a great fight, and as for that alliance rematch...that would be sweet.

[tiffany34990]

so s.p.a.m. had fun and myself and my team give big congrats to the winners and all the teams. we had all new drivers and operators handling the bot so it wasn't the usual s.p.a.m. team but it was all good. we had a lot of fun, cheering, dancing and well yeah...

great job again to the crew!

[robot180]

Well, I'll add to Tiff's post. I know most, if not all, drivers and operators were either first time driving, first time driving that robot, or just do not have much experience. The most important part is that we had fun. I know I did. I got to operate S.P.A.M.'s beast for several matches. I even managed to stack a few. I am very suprised I could do any of that because I am partially blind and I could barely see the goals.

Good job all teams and thanks to everyone for making it fun. This was the most fun FIRST-related event ever for me because I got to drive the bot so much and we weren't under so much presure to win.

[David Guzman]

Thanks to everyone who helped for making such an event possible. I had a very good time and it was great to experience some more FIRST. Thanks to 1523 and 1390 for a great alliance.

Dave

[Ryan Albright]

Well, I am very upset that i missed this event. I was suppose to be off the cruise ship by 10 am and i was going to head over there. But, do to the hurricane the port was closed for awhile and i didn't get off the boat till about 130 pm. Congrats Arefin and all the hard work you did. You did something that me and Dan tried about 2 years ago, but you actually succeed and i tip my hat to you.

[Greg Perkins]

Fin, Finny, Fin-Fin, Finarino, Finta....

anyway, im so glad that it went off without a hitch for you guys, i know ive been talking to ary for the past couple of weeks and seen how stressed he is. its nice to see that he wont have an ulcer now because it apparently went so smooth! (thanks to the teams for keeping him out of the hospital )

Fin keep up the spirit man, the world needs people like you, people who give the time and effort to make the best of every situation. keep up the effort and you'll go places kid.

Sorry fin about not makin the trip to florida, ya know im in college and yes, i am the sterotypical college kid *broke*. But you can make darn sure that ill be a ref for you next year and ill make sure i drag some NE teams down to the sunsh...err hurricane state for your event!!!

GOOD JOB FINARINO!!!!!

[tiffany34990]

Originally Posted by Andrew Rudolph

Look out for some nice trophies by me for this competition!

i must say they were very nicely done... i love them... hats off to you!

and the ppl who created the logo nice job too...hats off once again!

[Tytus Gerrish]

Originally Posted by Bharat Nain

Congratulations Arefin on your dream come true

thanks to the huricane it made us all work alot harder for it

it's good that it came true even though it was a wet one

[robot180]

Don't worry about the weather, it was great.

It is not a true South Florida FIRST competition unless it is held during a hurricane!

[Arefin Bari]

::Gets on Stage::

Mayhem @ the Museum, a dream that became reality, an off-season competition that took place on July 8th and 9th at the Museum of Discovery and Science, downtown Ft. Lauderdale. First of all, I would like to thank all the sponsors, Skanska, Museum of Discovery and Science, Broward County Public Schools, and South Florida FIRST. Thank you to all the teams who came down and joined us at the Mayhem.

Team 108 – SigmaC@T
Team 179 – Swampthing
Team 180 – S.P.A.M.
Team 233 – Pink
Team 710 – Paw
Team 1029 – Wolvcats
Team 1251 – TechTigers
Team 1341 – Knights who say NEE
Team 1345 – Platinum Dragons
Team 1390 – Weletthedogsout
Team 1523 – M.A.R.S.
Team 1592 – Bionic Tigers

It was really a Mayhem. Friday we set up the field while teams were showing off their true spirit of FIRST. Once we had the field ready (around 12 p.m.) we started practice matches. Caught a lot of attention from public, they were very interested in FIRST. We also had a lot of local TV channels; newspapers come in and interview teams as well as mentors from FIRST. Then it was the social where (I assume) the teams had a good time. We had BBQ. Friday night few of us stayed at the Museum (since it was an open space) with the field.

4 a.m. Saturday morning, it started raining very badly with a lot of wind (Broward was smashed with the ban from Hurricane Dennis). The field carpet was wet (3/4 of it). Everything was flying around. About 6 in the morning, the storm calm down. We had few shop vacuums. The committee was probably up for calling this off. But I didn’t want to say “I quit.” Volunteers joined me to start cleaning up the field. We had the carpet dried by 9 a.m. We waited till 12 p.m. since we were supposed to get another ban from Hurricane Dennis. At 12 we put the field back together. We started at 1. The competition included 20 qualifying matches, Elimination round, Human triple play, Autonomous competition, Mentors obstacle course driving. It was fun. It was amazing to see how the crew pulled it off. The name of the competition totally merges with the way it went. I hope the teams enjoyed it.

I would like to thank a few here. I would like thank John Burke (magnet coordinator), who was up for all these work, David Ellich (1251 mentor), for being there all the time and help planning everything out, Rosemary Petrill (1251 mentor), for taking care of all the judging criteria. Comes down to College students… Andrew Rudolph, yup he did it again, he made 17 trophies, and they look very professional. Mike Walker, who came down from Orlando and took care of the field and scoring. Dan Richardson, who did DJ for both days, he kept it going. Thanks to Steve Shade, Anne Bergeron, Bill Brown, Peter Smeryage, James Martz, Abraham D. for being referees at the Mayhem. Thanks to the 1251 crew (Drew, Kevin, Sebs, Dave) for being there and helping me all the time, without you guys it would have been so hard to pull this off. Thanks to Tytus Gerrish, Tiffany Lee, Amanda Makintosh, Barry bonzack for staying with me and support me with whatever I needed help with. Thanks to Jaine perotti for coming up with that nice logo for the Mayhem. The shirt looked Awesome.

I would also like to thank Dan Richardson and Ryan Albright who tried to do the same thing 2 years ago. I was inspired by them and I told them that I would make it happen. Sorry that it too me 2 years but I pulled it off. And ofcourse I would like to thank FIRST because if there was no FIRST, I wouldn’t be the Arefin that I am now.

Ok… I am done. =)

::steps off the stage::

[Jaine Perotti]

To everyone who was involved with Mayhem @ the Museum --

I want to congratulate you all for doing such a fantastic job organizing and pulling off this event. Starting and running an offseason, especially for the first time, must be an incredible challenge. It sounds like everything went smoothly for the most part, even with the threat of Hurricane Dennis. I am glad that everyone remained safe, and that Mayhem did not have to be canceled. Thank you to everyone who pitched in.

To Arefin especially --

I must say that I admire you for your strength of will and your determination. Running this offseason put you through way too much stress, and I am glad that it is over for the sake of your health. However, reaching for one's dreams is what makes people happy - without anything to struggle for, people would never gain the satisfaction of surmounting a challenge. It makes me so happy to see your dream come true, after all of the sleepless nights you had to endure, and the seemingly endless volumes of work that you had to do. Not everyone can deal with the large amounts of stress that you had to bear - let alone have it go as smoothly as it did.

You are one incredibly strong person, and I congratulate you for your perseverance.

Thank you to everyone who helped this young man's dream come true. I appreciate and value you all.
FIRST has the power to change lives, inspire, and make dreams come true - as is evidenced by the outcome of this offseason event.

-- Jaine