Now that it's been a couple of days since our return and we've had time to digest what happend, I want to give you an overview of how our championship run played out.
My last post was a review of our first day at competition. It wasnt' great but we were hanging in there and looking forward to Saturday morning to showcase our capabilities. It wasn't our best effort but we were no worse for the wear. Going into the alliance selections, we were caustiously optomistice of our chances of being picked.
In the first round of selections, there was alot of pairing up amongst the top 8 i.e. 1 picked 2, 3 picked 5, 4 picked 6, and 7 picked 8. Because of this, the 9th through 12th seeded teams moved up into alliance picking slots.
Our best case scenario was to get selected during the second round by one of the top 3 alliances. And guess what, our good friends from Team 86, Team Resistance, sitting at number 3, had faith in us. The alliance of 86, 1612 and 1251 was set.
A quick history lesson: We played with The Ohmers (their nickname) in '06 and went to the semi-finals. We allied with them again in '07 and '08 and won Florida both times. I think this was an omen.
The strategy was to move as many balls as possible to our scoring zone while starving our opponents of balls. It worked to perfection as we breezed through the quarter-finals beating the Stranahan led alliance 11 to 5 and 4 to 2.
The semi's were a bit more interesting, after losing the first match, we took the next 2 and were in the finals.
Ah, The Finals. It's a great feeling to be sitting there, looking back at what we've gone through not only at the competition but since kickoff as well, and have the opportunity to compete for the title.
I suppose it's better to tie than lose, and that's the way our first finals match ended, a 5-5 tie. Still 2 games to go.
The second match again proved our scoring power as we took it 5 - 0. One more to go.
We know how to make it interesting. Although outscoring our opponents 10 - 3 in the match, penalties cost us 5 points making the final score 5 - 3. A little scare but a win non-the less.
Final Thoughts
Everyone knows it takes some luck to win a regional - maybe alot. But it also takes hard work, persistance, and faith in what you're doing.
Many people contributed to our success and made this possible - too many to name.
But, I would like to acknowledge one individual who believes in what we're doing and has provided untold resources from financial support to machining to material.
Of course I'm refering to Paul Fazio and Sonny's Enterprises. Without them, none of what we have accomplised would be possible. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
Now, on to The Championship!
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