IRI was AWESOME!!! It had some weird times, you’ll soon find out, but I highly enjoyed myself. It was fun just to kick back and watch the finals. They were GREAT!!! Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen!
Ok, holy wow, I seriously wish I would have called in “sick” to work today! It sounds like there were a bunch of things I would have loved to have seen.
-3 of my favorite teams out there: Simbotics, Wildstang and Martians (and Patriotics, I love y’all too) all winning together! I mean, I wished on a star last night that 111 and 1114 would get together and bring this thing home, but I never imagined in a million years it would actually happen! Congratulations all of you guys!!!
-Mike Martus, one of the hardest working guys in this program, got volunteer of the year. Well Mike, it’s about time you’re recognized for all of your hard work. For those of you outside of Michigan, Mike works his… posterior off at all the regionals and to help everyone out. Congrats Mike, great to see a guy recognized who tends to stay in the shadows!
-6 keepers in autonomous!!! You have to be kidding me. I might have an ice cream cone for someone who can get me a video of that match… 
Sounds like IRI was quite the event, congrats to everyone, and I’ll see those of you who are attending, at MARC!
Congratulations to the IRI Planning Committee for a fabulous event. The event was exciting, entertaining, dramatic, fun, and AWESOME. I cannot describe the feeling you get realizing that you’re surrounded by the “Who’s Who” of FIRST. Terrific teams with incredible robots and drivers were all on top of their game.
The elimination matches were all hard fought and the alliance of 111, 1114, 2056 and 494 truly earned their victory. The spoiler play by Wildstang was pivotal in the outcome throughout the elimination round - their last second game-changing plays were BIG, really BIG!
Congrats too, to Andy Baker for his tenure as head mentor of the TechnoKats and CD’s Mike Martus as IRI Mentor of the Year.
If you haven’t been to IRI, your missing one of the premier events showcasing the spirit of FIRST. I’m already looking forward to next year!
More fun than the Championship… that’s pretty much all I have to say.
Oh no… I lied.
Congrats to the winners and finalists, no sense in mentioning them again. Congrats to Andy Baker and Mike Martus. And thank you to the volunteer staff for making this event the most wonderful event I have ever been to.
Especially thanks to Jane Young for spiking and coloring my hair, Cynette for helping at the pit announcer station, Arefin for providing the saran wrap, Eugenia for being such a great que-er person, and to the people that I helped with field reset during elims and danced with (can only remember Michelle Celio and KelliV).
Fun times had by all.
And congrats are also in order to Scott Ritchie for receiving the IRI Foundation award, to several students for winning scholarships and the two Volunteers of the Year (can someone please post all their names as I didn’t write them down)?
Al of the team and individual award winners are listed in the Thanks / Congrats thread.
On behalf of everyone at 1251 IRI was the best event we have been too hands down. Thanks to everyone who makes it possible hopefully we will be able to come back next year. Thanks to team 233 for taking our robot up to the event and being the ultimate gracious professionals. Congrats to the winners.
We had a great time,
-Drew
The IRI was awesome as always. Thanks to the organizers because without you it would’nt be possible. To teams 33, 68, and 93 thanks for being our alliance partners it was fun. Also, congratulations Mr. Martus for winning the mentor of the year award, you had no clue about it… just as planned;) 
My dad has just stolen the family copy of the new Harry Potter so I guess I am going to post about IRI now.
I never thought there could be a better competition than last year’s IRI, but I was wrong. The elimination rounds were so good, I think they were better than last year.
There are so many things and people I would like to thank
I would like to thank the judges (Copioli, JVN and Karthik) for participating in our little talent show act, it made it a legendary talent show act. And don’t worry, your lives were never in any danger (except Karthik’s, we wanted to get him back for his “singing” last year).
Thanks to 111, 1114 and 2056, you guys are some of the best teams I have ever been able to talk to or work with. Karthik, Raul, Tyler and the rest of the strategists that we got to work with, you guys knew your stuff.
I also want to congratulate teams 47, 33, 68, and 93 for playing some of the best finals matches I have ever seen. We were heartbroken that 47 and 33 passed on us, but it worked out well for all of us in the end
Thanks go out to Mr. Fultz, Mr. Baker and the rest of those involved in making IRI such a special and awesome event. Thanks to Mr. Leon for getting IRI on NASA TV and for being a great MC. Thanks to Copioli, Dan Green and Collin Fultz for announcing and MCing. Thanks to all the teams that traveled to make IRI the best competition it could be.
We weren’t running the drivers from the regular season. Myself, and 3 other drivers had been flipping in and out through the quals, doing our best. We had a rough start with 3 losses, and our auton wasn’t quite on target. We pulled out of the quals with no more losses, and were almost freaking out in the balcony during the draft. We did our best during the quarter and semi finals, but just couldn’t pull out the second win in our tie against the other alliance.
I loved IRI, and got a great impression of FIRST, seeing as this was my first competition to attend. (Woohoo for pre-rookies). I definitely intend to return this coming year, and the years ahead.
Congrats to 1114, 2056, 494, and 111.
Did anyone happen to get the final standings after all the qualification matches?
When I saw that first match between alliances 4 and 5, my thoughts were, “holy crap, we’re going to be in for a rough time against the winner of that QF if we make it past alliance 8.” I was right.
Congrats to 111, 1114, 2056, and 494. Also, thanks again for the organizers of IRI for putting on the best FIRST-related event going.
Everyone has images that stand out/stay with them from special times and events. IRI 2007 has many.
Images:
Brandon, the DJ
Paul Copioli, a man of grace
Michelle Celio skipping across the field after lining up the tubes for the zillionth time
Andy Baker stopping the tears in his sleeve as he made his AndyMark announcement
Team 71 in the stands - wow
Amy Prib riding the rack carousel, smiling quietly
the Blood Mobile
people who tried to donate blood but for whatever reason couldn’t - they tried and received a tee shirt - how cool is that…
the way our hosts continued to keep the backpacks in our view, celebrating the community generosity and the good start that the supplies promise: out in the refreshments area, then under the silent auction tables, then finally as the back drop for the judges and awards ceremony.
the IRI banners
mrs. p talking about robots that paint, creating art
the blue lit cell phones gently waving to beautiful music in the Talent Show
The 6 keepers and the moment they created that was totally understood by everyone present
Chris Fultz’s hugs
…and many many more
Parker,
You definitely impressed more than a few people this weekend at IRI. By Saturday afternoon, you drove that 148 robot as if you’d been doing it for years. I’m quite positive that you will have a very bright future in FIRST. I look forward to seeing what you and 148 come up with in 2008.
My team had to leave early, what was the AndyMark announcement?
Before I forget, I want to thank everyone that volunteered at IRI for their exceptional performance in the Best event ever. My team can not afford to attend multiple regionals or the Nationals and I wanted to give my seniors that started the team a chance to compete with the best teams out there and they got to do that at IRI. This was our nationals and I wanted to personally thank all of you for your great job on the way you have performed for this event. Also would like to give congrats to every team that was here for making this IRI one of the best experiences that my team has received. Without every team performing at there best, this event would not have been such a huge success.
We did some math.
Just for qualification matches…
I ran about 5 miles, making sure that every tube wasn’t under inflated.