Hey Everyone!
Wow! It's been more than a week since Cal Games, and I just barely recovered from the flu and the stress from the competition. Now that I look back at the whole experience, all I can say is still, Wow! I've never thought I could do anything close to the magnitude of Cal Games 03', and yet everything came together and the result was better than anything I could imagine. It wasn't a coincident, or an accident though. It happened because lots of wonderful people put in huge amount of time and energy into the competition, and I owe many thanks to each and everyone of the volunteers who made Cal Games possible.
I hope all of you managed to see how many people showed up this year to the competition, because every time I looked around, I was in awe of how packed the event was (about 500 bleacher seats total, plus the crowd around the playing field and scoring table, plus the people outside in the demos and concessions, plus the people in the pit area). There must've been more than 800 people through out the day! I hope all of you understand that those people were there because of their love for the competition and its value, and put forth whatever they can to make the event as successful and as much fun as it did, without asking for anything in return. And THAT, is the true spirit of the group we have around here in California, something I am very proud of whenever I talk to other FIRST-a-holics from across the country. I also hope that next time when you meet the same people at Silicon Valley Regional, or Sacramento Regional, you don't see them as opponents, but as partners... friends... or even family... Because I do :-).
Now, I don't want this e-mail to grow to endless pages of thank you's, but I still want to recognize EVERYONE who contribute to the success of California Robot Games 2003, so I am going to include a list of credits and simple thanks to few person in this e-mail. Please take the time to look through it, and understand the amount of people it takes to put together Cal Games.
Also, please forward this e-mail to your team members and volunteers you know who aren't on the community list.
Many many thanks to the people who made Cal Games 03’ possible:
FIRST advisor/Field Manager- Jason Morrella
Thank You, Jason, for being the source of right answers and guidance every time I needed it, whether they be FIRST related, or just being a human being in general.
WRRF President- Ken Krieger
Thank You, Ken, for being a mentor and a friend at the darkest time through out the whole experience.
Woodside High School & Staff, Arlene and the rest of Team 100
Big Thanks to the Woodside folks for making Cal Games possible at their school!
Event Setup
Field Transportation- Jim, EJ, and the rest of Team 254
Floor, Field, Pit, and Venue setup- Team 254, Team 115, Team 256, Team 192, Team 100, Team 256, Team 649, Team
840, Gold Family, Earl Bock, Andy Lee, Bill Gold, and many more volunteers.
A/V and Network setup- Doug Moeller: What a guy! Without the endless experience and energy from Doug, the A/V and electronic portion of the event would not have been possible! Special Thanks to Doug!
Event Management
Head Referee- Mark Whitehouse
Head Inspector- Patrick Wang
Public Relation: Flora Boyer and Jim Beck
Scorekeeper: Dima
Field Tech: Alan Federman
Referees: Mark Whitehouse, Patrick Wang, Jon Lawton, Sean Roberts
Announcer: Ken Berry
Field Reset: Reesa Lawton, and SJSU volunteers
Concession: Team 100 and 115
Inspectors: Jon Lawton, Anh Nguyen, Dave Frydunlund, and other volunteers
Photographer: Peter Yim (Team 840)
Music DJ: Team 254
Event Clean Up: Team 100, Team 254, Team 1151, Team 115, and many more volunteers
Volunteer Coordinator- Heather Bunch: Thank you for the words of wisdom every time I needed it, and for looking after me and the rest of the group when we were all tired and stressed out.
Registration- Ceal Craig (team 1120), Norma Hammes and her daughter Lu (WRRF Board): Thank you, Ceal, for being so organized and on top of things at the registration table. Registration would not have happened without your help.
Side Events: Team 192 Gunn Robotics Team, Team 1151 Hitchhiker, and Team 481 De Anza Robotics Team, Team 846 Lynbrook Robotics Team.
Queuing and Pit to Field Traffic- Wendy Wooten and team 22 volunteers, and Stephanie (team 258) : Wendy and her team came all the way up from LA to help us! Many Thanks!
Master of Ceremony- Pail Copioli: Thank You so much, Paul, for coming out to California and made the competition so much more exciting with your energy and excitement! FIRST and Cal Games would be very different without you.
And Special Thanks to the gang in WRRF: Ken, Jim, Sandy, Norma, Flora, Valerie, Steve, and Joanne. I learned a lot from all of you.
This will be my last e-mail as Cal Games 03’ Event Manager. Again, I want to thank everyone who was there when I needed them. I learned A LOT of things through out this whole experience, and I wouldn’t trade anything with it. I am sorry I didn’t have a chance to chat with any of you at Cal Games, but hopefully I will be more awake in the future (I can only promise I will try) ;-). I also promise I will send out less e-mails next season ;-).
Last but not least, here is a list of award winners for the 4th Annual California Robot Games 2003:
Stack Attack Tournament Champion: team 968, 258, 481
Stack Attack Tournament Finalist: team 256, 254, 100
Driver Challenge Obstacle Course Champion: team 1072
Driver Challenge Obstacle Course Finalist: team 1120
Robot Sumo Wrestling Champion: team 968
Robot Sumo Wrestling Finalist: team 980
Human Player Challenge Champion: team 1151
Human Player Challenge Finalist: team 115
Autonomous Mode Challenge Champion: team 258
Highest Seeded Rookie: team 1151
Volunteer of the Year: Norma Hammes
Good luck with the up coming season! Go Teams!
-Ken Leung
Cal Game 03’ Manager signing out