Thank You Niles!

[GGCO]

On behalf of COMETS Robotics, I would like to congratulate teams 2054, 2474, and 858. You guys pulled through in an 11th hour effort and ended up winning the entire thing. Great job.

I'd also like to point out that if it weren't for 858's hyperagressive defense, the winning alliance might not have been able to do so well. You did a good job at shutting Code Red (2771) down. Congrats.

To the finalists, 2771, 74, and 2591, you also fought hard but ended up suffering major technical problems. I saw 74's elevator suffer through a "stuttering" (my guess mechanical) issue in the final matches which caused number of tubes scored to dramatically decrease. This was really unfortunate.

Code Red, we were all shocked to see when your auton drove straight backwards in the last match. However, in the big picture 2771 exceeded ALL expectations. The number of awards you won (all totally deserved), your kindness to our team (and many others), and your all around exuberance really made Niles a fun event. Congrats on a great 2011 season!

I want to extend a BIG congrats to team 503, Frog Force, for winning the Chairman's award. As another Magna sponsored team, we want to emulate your efforts in the future.

Lastly, I want to thank all the volunteers. On Thursday there were only 3 inspectors, and those guys worked their butts off to get everyone inspected on time. You guys are heroes. The MCs were, as always, entertaining and (along with 2771) kept everyone's spirits up.

Overall, great job everyone!

[Richard Wallace]

Niles was an incredible event, thanks to great teams and dedicated volunteers from near and far. Grant is correct that we were a little short of inspectors on Thursday, but overall the event was long on GP. That makes everything go better.

Congratulations to all the competitors. My new Michigan rookies, the Average Joes (3620) were definitely inspired by you. One personal highlight was finally getting to see their minibot deployed successfully in QF4-2. Thanks to our alliance partners 1243 and 1506!

Another highlight of the event for me was inspecting 503 and working with their team members in other ways around the event. What an incredible team! The key to growing and sustaining FIRST (in Michigan and everywhere) will be building many more Frog Forces.