A HUGE thank you/congratulations to... the great state of MN

[laurenlacy]

I have been watching MN from my little post in Indiana, and I just wanted to say thank you and congratulations to ALL of the teams from Minnesota.

In 2006 I went to the kickoff in Wisconsin and to the Wisconsin regional with my team, one of only two teams from Minnesota.

In 2007 I went to the kickoff in Minnesota and the Wisconsin regional with my team, one of MANY teams from Minnesota.

In 2008 I went to the Minnesota kickoff and the Minnesota regional to see my old team, one of 50-some odd Minnesota teams now hosting their very own regional.

In 2009 I saw the kickoff in Minnesota expand, and I went to the MN North Star regional... one of TWO MN regionals with 81 teams from Minnesota competing.

While all of this is well and good what makes me even more proud is that these MN teams seem to "get it". I know of so many friendships between the teams, and I've seen how they have all come together to get things happening at the Minnesota State Fair, at the upcoming ValleyFair FIRST day, at the Minnesota Splash! event... these teams truly embody the "compete like crazy on the field, work together off the field" mentality that is so much a part of the FIRST culture. I am very proud to say that I have been a part of a Minnesota FIRST team.

Congratulations Minnesota, and thank you from me personally for inspiring me in all that you do for your FIRST community.

[RaidJTC]

For the sake of saving space on Chief Delphi, I'll post my thanks here if that's ok.

I'd like to thank our alliance partners 1816 and 2418 for an outstanding time working our way to the final rounds in North Star.

1816- You guys easily stood out to our team as one of the best at our regional. Your groups commitment and skill overall provided one the best and most experienced teams we've ever played with. The fact that you guys modified your robot from a shooter to easily one of the best dumpers in the regional still blows my mind. You guys are truly a special team and I look forward to seeing your guys ingenious design for next years task.

2418- It was a privilege working with you guys as well. Your teams upbeat attitude and personality provided a great atmosphere for our alliance. Along with that, your robot was an instrumental part in eliminating key robots and your drivers showed true skill in implementing our strategy. Our team can't wait to see you again at next years regional and I hope you all the best of luck in the future.

Along with our thanks, we want to extend our apology as well. I'd like to apologize personally for our broken robot on the field. It truly was a freak technical problem, because right before we started I checked the jaguars and they were good, but then two of them seemed to overheat and shut down right at autonomous, letting only two wheels on our robot able to spin. I personally don't mind losing when the other teams clearly have outmatched us but losing like that is something team 2472 is going to remember and build off of for years to come. I am sorry that it cost us a chance of winning the regional but I know winning was never the most important goal of our team. What was most important is that we, team 2742, had an superb time in this alliance and we will remember our 2nd regional for many many years. We look forward to seeing you all in the future and again, thank you.

I'd also like to congratulate the winning teams. The three teams 79, 2970, and 2549, all easily could be identified as some of the best teams at this regional and team 2472 wishes you the best of luck in Atlanta.

[Chris Fultz]

The 2 MN regionals this weekend we just fantastic.

I volunteered to sort of "fill in" and ended up helping out in a few different areas, and that let me talk to several teams and mentors from Minnesota and the region. I was abslutely impressed with soo many of the first and second year teams and what they are doing. The "rookie award" judges really had their work cut out for them!

I expected to know "no-one" there, but then ran into several FIRST friends at each place. Very cool.

It was interesting how "different" the two events were, for being just a few hundred yards apart. Not saying one was better or worse, just unique personalities of each event.

Woodie gave opening remarks and was able to present both WFFA's. It is always awesome to hear his words and learn a little more about his approach to life.
Congratulations to Mark Lawrence and Kurt Aschenbeck!

Good luck to all of the teams that advanced - hope to see you in Atlanta!

[Vikesrock]

A huge thank you to all the Volunteers that helped make the Northstar regional the fantastic event that it was, especially regional Chairperson Mark Lawrence and Volunteer Coordinator Laurie Shimizu.

The volunteers did an excellent job getting teams on and off the field in a timely manner. As far as I know we had no major field issues on any day of the competition.

Our robot had some electrical issues that caused us to not move in two matches on Friday. I knew that the problem was likely on our end, based on feedback from the light above our station, the driver's station, and our dashboard, but the volunteers running the control system made sure to check with us on our way off the field both times.

I also wanted to thank our alliance partners Team 171, the Cheese Curd Herd and Team 525, the Swart-Dogs. You guys trusted us when we told you that we had our electrical issues resolved and we hope we didn't disappoint. Your teams both showed tremendous gracious professionalism in our wins in the quarters and our losses in the semis. We greatly enjoyed working with both of you and hope you will continue to return to Minnesota and that we'll have an opportunity to play with each of you again. We just might have to see what we can do to get over to Wisconsin or down to St. Louis or KC next year too.

Congratulations to the finalist alliance of 1816, 2472, and 2418. We knew that your alliance was going to be very difficult for us to beat and it turns out we were right. Even when we managed to hold 1816 in check 2472 made us pay for it.

Congratulations to the winning alliance of 79, 2970 and 2549. 79 had proven that they were the robot to beat throughout the whole competition and when I saw them pair up with 2970 I immediately pegged them as the favorites to go all the way. 2549 rounded out this fantastic alliance and grabbed their second regional win in their two years of existence.

A special congratulations goes out to Team 2169 for taking home the Chairman's award. I was a bit surprised and disappointed when you guys didn't get picked for the Elims, but I hope the Chairman's makes up for it I knew you guys were instrumental in working on the FTC program here and that you were mentoring and/or starting some teams but I had no idea it was 20+ teams!!! It's great to see such a fantastic team rewarded for their efforts. If you guys are going to Atlanta and need anything, don't hesitate to ask and we'll do what we can.

[Matt382]

Ok I have some thank yous and congratulations togive out too.

2472 - As an alliance partner, you guys were the bomb! You helped score tons of moon rocks even when we were pinned. You did a great job, even though you had some bad luck in the last match. (Our second to last match wasn't much better)

2418 - You guys were ranked last when we played you our last match on friday and were ranked 39th at the end of qualifying rounds. You easily proved that the ranks were flawed and we were extremely happy when you were left for us to pick. You played great defense in the elims and helped us get out of countless pins. We would'nt have made it so far without such a strong 2nd pick.

2970 - Your robot was great and your team members friendly, great job in Wisconsin and even better in Minnesota. I'm sad to hear you might not have a team next year since you have so many seniors. Good luck in nationals and at college next year!

79 - I didn't really get a chance to talk to you guys in the pits or anything but you had an awesome robot and you guys were definetely one of the top robots at competition. I'm glad you braved the cold, came to Minnesota, and set the standard high for all the new rookie teams.

2549 - A second regional win in your second year is fantastic. You proved reliable throughout the elims. Good luck at nationals!

2169 - I'm happy to see you guys win the Chairman's Award. You did a fantastic job lending out tools in the pit and a great job outreaching and I had lots of fun mentoring our tech team (2887) at the tech competition you guys hosted. I hear you guys are also converting to a dumper like we did so we should expect some great results from you guys at nationals. Good luck!

2817 - Great moves, thanks for teaching us the 'stanky leg', and getting one of our mentors to dance! You have one of the friendliest teams and always said hi and wished us good luck in our matches. Dining with you at the Spagetti factory on Thursday was lots of fun. We LOVE you guys (Bumblebutt says you better have a mascot to help him next year)

Mark Lawrence deserves all the congratulations he received, and more. He has worked his butt off inspiring countless FIRST teams in Minnesota. The Green Machine appreciates the fact that we can call him our own and know that we will continue to assist him in his endeavors in the future.

Laurie Shimizu also did a fantastic job as the volunteer coordinator for the Minnesota Regional. She has come a long way from the communication mentor of team 1816, she now uses twitter and texts both Green Machine and Volunteers constantly; Laurie Shimizu is the secret success of our team and the MN Regional.

Great job to all the teams attending the Minnesota regionals. You put on a great performance. Minnesota is one of the fastest growing states in FIRST robotics, lets keep it up! Hopefully, with all of your help, we can continue the growth of FTC and create the large sustainable program FIRST is all about. Keep working hard, have tons of fun, and see you all next year!

--The Green Machine

[JJD]

Originally Posted by laurenlacy

and I've seen how they have all come together to get things happening at the Minnesota State Fair, at the upcoming ValleyFair FIRST day, at the Minnesota Splash! event...

I'm also from MN, just coming off of my 2nd regional. While we didn't make the playoffs, going from 42nd seed in 2008 to 19th seed in 2009, and winning our final 4 games after going 1-4 to finish the competition at 5-4 certainly made me even more crazy about FIRST and extremely excited about the future.

PS- I've heard of the State fair FIRST booth, but what is going on with Valleyfair and Minnesota Splash! event?