Re: Michigan 2017
Posted: May 2nd, 2017, 3:55 am
I wholeheartedly agree with all of this. I felt like the tournament tests were overall pretty easy, which made it hard to differentiate teams, but the tournament was run the way it was, and there's no doubt in my mind you guys earned your place to nationals fair and square. I'm going to root for you guys, hopefully you can represent our state in MatSci and Chem.parasaurolophus wrote:Please be careful in saying any team "should have gone to nationals." I don't think you mean to be malicious. However, the way you phrased it is a bit hurtful and you would be surprised at how many people who don't even have accounts lurk these forums and read comments like these and take it very personally, aka most of my teammates over the past couple of days.Tesel wrote: For all I know, IA Central and Northville were miles ahead any of the other teams, but also for all I know Stevenson and Ann Arbor should have gone to nationals. It seemed like they did very little to really differentiate the teams.
Don't forget that there are other unfair things that consistently affect the results; I could sit here pointing out how some teams have a huge advantage because they have event coaches and mentors, funding, and material resources, things that my team does not even come close to having, and which are not at all based on merits. Our Robot Arm micro controller and batteries are in a baby wipes box. But we roll with it because that's just who we are. Please, if you feel that an event was run unfairly, that is something to report to the organizers rather than speculating that it somehow affected the results in one direction. That's actually a pretty serious claim.
I will say it again-- fantastic job to all Michigan teams. I was very, very impressed on Saturday! We are such a powerhouse state. I really wish that more than two teams could move on, not just because of skill or intelligence, but because of much honest passion I saw. Let's put faith into the hard work of all teams, and the supervisors and coordinators who put so much work into making these tournaments a success.
So yeah, sorry if my response was unclear, because the two teams that won deserved it. I'm just disappointed that MSU's prep seemed to be lacking (Missing labs, easy tests, really weird setups).