Despite my delay on posting, I am actually still recovering from the excitement that has overcome me since Philly. Our annual trip to the Philly regional started off very sleepily, having to get on our bus at 5:15 am so that the bus could get back for the gathering of students that were actually attending school. Of course the positive to this was I woke up at 3:41… WIN! After sleeping on the bus and lots of caffeine, we had a very fun-filled practice day with more cheering than my voice could handle, and an epic hacky sack session at lunch that included people from about ten teams.
Throughout Friday and for Saturday morning, we had an awesome time cheering for our team and I loved helping out other teams in the pit. Somehow we managed to end up being 1st seed after qualification matches, which by the way we had never done before this season began. Our alliance was composed of MOE (365) and the Positronic Panthers (486). The eliminations were insane. I’d have to say team 87 Diablo is one of the scariest defense bots we have ever played against; we barely squeaked out a 8-7 win to clinch a spot in the finals. A chain problem in the middle of the third match of the finals and being down by one was nerve racking, but luckily the chain fixed itself and we ended up on top for the second time in one year. That makes 5 regional championships in 4 years.
Being a part of the Chairman’s crew on our team, I had prepared countless hours as a backup for a member of our presentation crew. Winning the Chairman’s Award was awesome. I am so happy for our presentation crew and I give them some serious credit for their amazing job. I would also like to congratulate our website team for a second Website Award won in one year. We won the Coopertition™ Award as well.
I would also like to thank the judges for awarding me a Regional Dean’s List Award, which caught me completely by surprise. In addition I thank my team and mentors, without whose support I would never have been able to bring this honor to the team; it is as much all of yours as it is mine.
Coming home was nice. We got to enjoy our win over our week-long spring break, before going back to school where the clanking of our “bling” was heard throughout the whole school.
Over the past week and a half I have not been able to concentrate on anything besides my anticipation for the championships in Atlanta. Our Chairman’s presentation is even better as well as our ability to answer questions, which we have been working on since the end of spring break. Although apprehensive as to how we’ll do, I am greatly looking forward to landing in Atlanta.
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Evan Ostrow
