FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

I thought it would be fun to try something that has been done here in the past, but do it in a way that causes a little less controversy.

The goal is to rank the "Top 25" FRC teams for the 2011 Season much like college sports. Some of the issues mentioned about the last time this was done have been addressed.

There are some rules that need to be followed to try and keep "popularity" out of it as much as possible.

1. You cannot cast a vote for any team you are involved with.
2. You cannot cast a vote for a team that has not played a match.(IE if your team doesn't play until week 6, it will not be eligible until then)
3. All voting must be done through the frctop25.com submission page
*Anyone involved in FRC can vote regardless of years involved*

There are 2 separate polls, a mentors poll, and a student poll. Please indicate on the submission form which category applies to you.

Votes for Week 1 must be in by Tuesday, March 8th. The new poll will come out every Wednesday evening before that weeks events. (The Week 1 Poll Will come out Wednesday the 9th)

I will be checking each voter to ensure they meet the above criteria. Mike Starke (Mike Starke on CD) and myself will be the only ones to see the actual voters and their respective votes. We will leave it up to the voters themselves if they chose to reveal their lists. No "anonymous" votes will be accepted.

Votes will be tallied by assigning 25 points to your #1 Selection, 24 points for #2 and so on. With the #1 ranking going to the team that receives the most points. #2 the second most and so on.

Votes for week 1 can be sent in Saturday at 9PM up until the deadline. If you fail to comply with the above conditions your list will be void for that week. Please do as much as you can to watch that weeks events, don't just go by the winners, try to do some research.

Check out the site at FRCTop25.com
(Note the teams listed are for testing purposes only!)

If you have any ideas to amend the voting process or improve the website please post. And again, have fun with this, don't take any of it personally and have a great 2011 season!

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

There could be a different way of going about this, you know how the FIRST Competition is about 'coopertition' and gracious professionalism?

There should a Top 25 for that, instead of pure performance, because there are plenty of rookie teams and 'young' teams that want recognition, but if their robot underperforms, then they don't get recognition.

I think it would be nice to recognize the less funded/smaller teams by making a Top 25 Graciously Professional teams, or something similar.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Do you plan on supporting an API or an iframe. This is the sort of thing I would like to embed within the scouting pit.

Also after having the social network on loop, I had an idea that may be more appropriate for you to implement than me. Do a facemash sort of thing but for the robots. my thought was to edit team numbers from photos and to put two robots up against each other.

This would help to eliminate preconceptions and natural biases people have to power teams from past years.

Then again you use the college sports example, which actually encourages these biases.

A similar thing could be done with match videos, where you have to select one team from the 6.

One thing I have noticed flipping through the photos that many young teams have very well designed robots this year. There is no reason they shouldn't be able to rise to the top 25 simply because they don't have "FIRST fame"

Also, I believe the 3rd year rule may increase the likelihood of +3 year teams being voted for.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

How is 177 listed at 20th and also receiving votes?
I know they're that good but they can't be that good.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

The nature of that type of action makes it poorly suited to this type of thing. The reason this "works" is that through webcasts, a single individual can view many different robots from across the country. Acts of Coopertition or GP typically affect an individual, single team, or single event.

It is absolutely a great idea to recognize teams that display great Coopertition and Gracious Professionalism, but that recognition is probably more appropriate in person at the event or in a thread in the Thanks ans/or Congrats section after the event. Ranking teams based on their GP just doesn't seem like that great an idea to me. I don't see how you can say that the 148 is any more or less GP than 234 or 365 or 93 or anyone else for that matter.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

That's a good point. I'll remove that condition.

Thanks to those who sent in some test submissions, everything seems to be working well.

Is the site easy to read? Is it too cluttered? What do you think about having a top 25 poll for minibots?

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

I thought you said that no one should be voted for until they had matches under their belts for the 2011 season?

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

All teams currently listed on the website were merely put in place to test the overall layout of the site. Submissions that were sent in were just testing that aspect of the website.

Votes will not be tallied unless they are submitted during the valid voting times for that week which are from the Saturday that ends the week through the following Tuesday. For example, The week 1 Voting times are from Saturday, March 5th through Tuesday, March 8th.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

What's stopping people from voting multiple times, as members of multiple teams, or as both a student and a mentor? You should think of a way to have a login to minimize this. Also, you may want to consider allowing a team to have only one login. The weighting on the votes will be fairer then.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

They aren't allowing anonymous voting. Voters are also not allowed to vote for any team they're involved with.

Regarding the "GP" aspect: This is a "Top 25" poll. I don't see anybody saying any definitions of "Top". In other words, if that's how you wanted to fill out and submit a list, that's how you fill out and submit a list.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

what if you had a "top 25" for each regional competition. So people fill out who they thought was "top 25" in each regional. And based on that information, the "overall top 25" was calculated based on answers from each regional?

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

I think it works well as is.

I don't know what kind of DB you are using, but I would recommend storing the timestamp of each vote. I like the up and down sections, and this would allow you to eventually provide stock graphs for the teams.

Also the titles of the charts are a little confusing, actually more so if you just didn't include it.
If I was in control of this, I would just remove them. For me the the table is naturally intuitive. Also note that the arrows are offset from the actual row, potentially you could use a smaller arrow [the same size as your font] and it would have the same effect. (make the arrows the same size)

again these are small things, but they look good.

regarding minibots, personally I don't think voting is the best way to rank minibots. The twitter feed contains match bonuses and I plan on using a team's estimated bonus contribution to figure out who the best minibots actually are.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

This is a cool idea.

Do you plan to weight some user's contributions more than others? I don't see how one person could possibly rank all of the the team without basically guessing.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

I would prefer rather than a "student / mentor" poll there be a "public" and "private" poll - "private" being random qualified individuals added to the polls.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

This is a cool idea. I fear there will be a strong correlation between if a team was at a webcasted regional and ranking.

I also like Chris's idea of a poll of expert or qualified individuals. Maybe those people could be voted nominated and then voted on.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Yea, if you were going to have maybe 15 or so people for a "professional" or "more realistic" poll, that would be good. Maybe contact some CD users via pm, have them sign in, vote and even keep who they are secret. Sorta Looking Forward.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

What may be more interesting is to have those 15 people actually write articles explaining their personal top 25s.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Shh, you're stealing my ideas :P

While I don't want to assert that my opinion means anything more than jack squat, I was thinking of making blog posts on my personal bog every week or so with a top 10 / 25 list along these lines

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

We should have a public poll posted and then do a FIRSTcast of these 15 or so "experts" counting down from 25-1 and them giving reasons why the teams are where they are.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Yeah, I think I'd be more interested in hearing people who definitely know what they're talking about express their opinions—rather than be drowned out by the votes of a lot of people who may not have any particular credibility to make these assessments.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

I would suggest publishing who the voters are (so we know they are experts) but not their personal rankings. Of course, the voters can share their rankings and some rationale, but I could see some not wanting others to know as it could tip their hand as to what strategies are best. An example would be someone ranking only teams with fast minibots. If this person was associated with an elite team, I think alot of people would think that "team xxx thinks minibots are extrememly important".

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

This is a really good idea - I really think the conversational nature of a podcast would be of benefit to such a discussion.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Well when I first thought of this College Football Live popped into my mind. Usually when the new top 25 comes out the moderator would start listing from 25-1 and each team they would stop and talk about them and each would say if they think the team is too high, too low or right where they need to be. Like, all the experts' votes would be pre-tallied into the list then they would talk about the list.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

I like the idea of an expert poll like Looking Forward used to conduct. The experts would have to regionally distributed to even out the natural regional biases. Experts should be kept secret.

I also love the idea of a public poll. I think I might have a few of our scouts vote in it as an exercise in compiling picking lists and to encourage them to watch webcasts & CD. Is there a need to "vouch" for someone who is not an active poster on CD?

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Oh yes. This sounds much better than having it be secretive. Or at least have the 10 vote in secret, and have 5 of them do some sort of discussion on their picks and be open about it.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Lots of great ideas here.

If you would like to be considered to vote in the "private" poll then shoot me a PM. Also of your interested in writing an article explaining your selections include that as well.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

FYI, "participate" is spelled "particiapte" in the disclaimer at the bottom. :p

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

What makes you say that?


I think this should be marketed more as ESPN's Power rankings, which is just for fun and has no influence on the season, and not NCAA football/basketball which do determine what teams play who and where.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Good catch, thanks.

Also changed the "key" at the top of the polls to make them clearer.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

I think anonymity of the "experts" is very important for this to work. Call it the "Looking Forward model". People like the mystery. It elevates this above normal posters knowing that some mysterious group of experts are behind this post/ranking. You might have your suspicions but you don't know their identities for sure. You assume they are amazing experts, whoever seems best in your mind (WFA winners, 15+ year veterans, CD Rock Stars like JVN, Karthik or Koko Ed, or even Dave Lavery???).

This model also limits the backlash. Not everything Looking Forward said was positive. He called for upsets and snubbed teams. It didn't seem personal because he wasn't "a person". Similarly, stats like OPR aren't personal. If anyone can look at all these experts picks and notice one person has a team ranked lower (or left off) than the rest then someone on the forum is going to take personal offense with that expert. The reason college football started releasing ballots was so people "could scrutinize" the voters in hopes they would not be corrupt (not an issue here). Notice how Justin has wisely included a disclaimer already, we all know what is to come. I think you will get more/better volunteer "experts" if they don't have to deal with it. Also, if the "expert" is not a well known name on CD/FIRST they might be seen as illegitimate by people who are far less of an experts themselves (i.e. "Who is this Left Coast guy and what does he know?")

Aside from some likely mean comments tossed at individual voters, it will also pressure the voters to conform with each other (when they see other's ballots) like every major Top 25 (stick to everyone's pre-season guess until overwhelming evidence destroys it). This best be a very fluid poll with wide differences of opinion for 2 reasons: 1. Since you can't vote on a team till they have finished an event, a team debut at #1 without it being a slight on a previous #1. 2. No matter how much of an "expert" someone, noone sees all the robots (especially in early weeks the archive video is not there).

Finally, if you tell everyone who the voters are, this will degenerate into a bunch of "Pick me! messages" aimed at the voters. If you don't believe me see every thread with the word "Best" in the title or Billfred's (unsuccessful) attempt to curb this behavior (nice try :) ). I am not concerned that this will influence the voters much since the people who write this messages are almost always not Top 25 Material. However, it can get to the point where the noise overwhelms the signal (and CD PM boxes). Of course, this sort of thing will happen in some form whether FRCTop25.com exists (it is try to limit it by not allowing picking your own team), but we should try to limit the annoyance. I think it happened less when Looking Forward was posting credible analysis of the top teams. Also the existing noise was a little more interesting as people acted as tipsters for their own team (I remember person who posted watch out for "Team XXXX at yada yada Regional!", then realized like hour later that they still had Team XXXX in their profile so they changed to Team 0000). Maybe FRCTop25.com will be similar in this respect. I wish more people subscribed to the Don Wright School of Thought of "Don't pick (on) me!'

I think a Top 25 is a really fun idea that should help get the masses interested in robot that are not in their region. There will always be a minority of people that will make it less fun with their negativity and whining. I just hope it doesn't make it an annoyance for Justin or any of the "expert voters". Just because the vote is secret doesn't mean voters can't give reasons for their picks. Voters (expert and public) could write comments about each robot and the best ones could be collected on a page for that robot. I actually think the single best comment per robot should be included when you release the new weekly rankings in a thread on CD. Expert voters could reveal themselves and release their ballots if they choose as the season progressed (and see how it works out). Then for next year you can add/switch some of the voters and make it a fun secret again ;) .

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

This is kind of like a variation on Fantasy FIRST where speculation precedes reality. The teams listed in the top 25 are the usual suspects who have always been heard from year in and year out just like when they do the top 25 in college football. During the season surprising upstarts will rise to prominence while disappointing underachievers will fall.
Personally I'm going to approach this like the ultimate Fantasy FIRST draft and I get the frist 25 picks from all the regionals. But to be honest there are deserving teams that are going to be left behind. When drafts for places I don't know so well like Oklahoma, Kansas City or the Minnesota regionals I actually go with the randomize at those events so obviously this is strictly for speculative fun because it certainly won't be truly accurate or fair.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Except no team that hasn't played yet is listed, so this can't happen.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

After week 1 you will see only big name teams... You may have the rare one or two odd balls... Just looking at week one regionals, there are 25 top teams completing and im 95% sure we will see them in the top 25 all reguardless if they win or not..

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

When they do a top 25 in college football no one has played yet but they still put out a list.
Fantasy FIRST is even worse. We're picking in December before we even have a game but it's the only time we can draft. No one has time to do this during build season. It's the ultimate exercise in speculation.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Teams that were good Week 1 and 2 that were not "Big Name Teams" became "Big Name Teams" very quickly. People talked a lot about 1676, 525, 230, 1732, etc. all season


I'm just saying you shouldn't criticize an idea based on a valid criticism that the OP already fixed.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Going back to the privacy of voters (if you were to do the private top 25), privacy for those people would be important because teams that would be left out from that person's top 25 would be upset with that person. Also, voters that are team members or mentors on other teams don't want to bring any opinions upon their team that shed a negative light on the team purely because they didn't include X team on their list. Also, people could question voters polls if they don't recognize the username from around Delphi. There are obvious people on delphi (cocoEd, chris.is.me, dave lavery respectfully) that are obvious experts on the many teams in FRC but there are definitely many people on Delphi who don't often comment due to either their team rules, or because they don't want to bring any opinions of them onto their team. These people still surf Delphi on a daily basis and are familiar with the many teams, especially the ones that post on delphi. Also, often times the people that surf delphi daily are also the ones who weed through bluealliance when the regionals start. I guess all I'm trying to say is that there are many experts out there, but people just don't know that they're experts. You probably also don't want to pick all experts from veteran teams, because they might lean towards other teams, even if it is subconciously.

This is just stuff to keep in mind if you were to do a private poll for T25; privacy is important to protect those users and their teams, and variety of experts (veteran-to young teams, active users-"sleepers": readers only).

Either way I think a top 25 is a cool idea and should be fun. And I think it also might force more teams that want to be involved to be a little more detailed and thorough with their scouting. Should be good as long as St. Louis doesn't turn into the BCS! :rolleyes:

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

But you just supported my case? These teams that you listed are those odd ball teams that are having a great year... The TCU's and Boise State's of college football.. Then you have the normals that will always be there year after year... The Texas's, Alabama's and Ohio State's... Teams like 71,67,111,1114,217... From the first week they appear, they will not fall from the top 25...

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

I'm saying that the odd ball teams that actually did well got just as noticed as the perennials.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Justin and I are super stoked about this idea. Justin has been putting so much work into this. You all have so many great ideas and it is really cool to see how excited you all are to be a part of this! We are in the final stages of planning. Final decisions of how we're going to go about this will be made in the next day or two.

Justin and I were talking about having all ranking decisions for the Week 1 Regionals be made by Tuesday March 8th. On Wednesday March 9th, the next stage of "FRCTop25" will be revealed....(dates are tentative and may change as Justin and I's schedules conflict- we'll let you all know the final dates/times ASAP.)

"Mike and Justin In the Morning" will be airing Wednesday night(ironic?) lol. On our video webcast, we will reveal the Top 25 teams in FRC. and talk about each robot. We'll go through the list starting with the 25th team and work our way up to number one... talking about each robot with supporting points made from our voters. Maybe we'll show some videos/pictures of the robots making good plays, etc. We'll take emails/AIM messages and Skype calls from our viewers who have comments that they would like to share on the air. We are extremely excited about this phase, because we think that a webcast/podcast would be a great addition to the FIRST Community.

Thanks for all your support! PM Justin or myself with any questions/comments/concerns! :)

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

So the good teams are ranked higher, and the "up and comers" work their way to the top? Seems like it works exactly how it should.

I think that given the number of people that hopefully participate, it solves 2 problems. First, one or two people voting random team 9999 just because they happen to know them from their regional won't get enough votes to make the list. Second, If say 217 doesn't win Finger Lakes week 1 then I highly doubt that people will rank them higher then teams that did win just because they are 217.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

I agree with your points, but we have seen just as in elimation selections from the past , that names do carry a lot of weight... If I'm seeded first and I know 217 is out there, the idea of them always knowing how to win, plays a huge role into my mind when picking as it would when im voting...

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

That's another benefit, you can vote exactly how you want. If you feel 217 is better then the team that did win, perhaps a penalty that wasn't 217's fault cost them the regional then maybe they do deserve to be higher. Each voter will carry his or her own criteria and hopefully, through the votes of many, a halfway accurate but definitely fun list will emerge.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Yeah, so what you're saying is that there's an advantage to teams that are consistently good, instead of good by "chance".

The good teams should be ranked high - makes perfect sense to me. How many times do "random" teams do dramatically better than perennial powerhouses anyway? Ever?

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

My suggestions:

You need a third ranking poll, one for combined weeks. Each week, there comes out a top 25 poll for teams that played THAT WEEK and that week only. Each week has a public and private poll for THAT WEEK. However the third poll on the side will be the combined public and private polling for EACH WEEK played so far. Public polling points are added with the private polling points and put on one total poll. This way, the public will actually be able to speak louder than the few special voters. Teams that are as good as both public and private voters say they are will be rewarded with much higher stats in the total season poll, and teams that are really good but the private voters snub will be given the chance to shine because the public will outweigh the private when it comes to how many points the teams receive.

Also, let us not forget, ranking teams based on their ability to play the game isn't as FIRST as FIRST really is. This poll is all about competition, and competition is suposed to be second to the real mission of FIRST. What this poll was started as was about the fun of it. It doesn't need to be taken so seriously that we have bitter arguements. Teams that are powerhouse each year will have their days and everyone will always comment on how they are the best and be magically ranked in people's heads as to who is first or second.

In most regionals, the three teams that win a regional are usually two well known good teams and one "who are they, where are they from" team. Usually speaking. I think if anything, this poll will point out teams that achieve a victory yet arn't well known week by week. If we bring a handfull of new team numbers to light, this will be a major success.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

This.

Some say if you tune your radio to 87.3 FM, you can hear his thoughts, and that he's terrified of ducks.

All we know is, he's called The Stig!

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Here are my initial thoughts.

Aside from styling changes, you need to do several things to make the site really easy to use.

1. Have national polls and regional polls... ie who do you think will be the best teams in your state?
2. Make it obvious where the user goes to vote. It should be one of the first things to see.
3. The heading for the table should read:
Team # | # of Votes | Change from previous rank
4. Maybe include an underdog section. Like many people pointed out, the top 25 teams are the "usual suspects". I'd like to see other teams get the spotlight.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

I think this is great!
One issue that will come up is teams getting overlooked because of the region they come from. As an example, east coast teams have trouble getting the level of respect they might deserve. I believe that this is partially due to lack of exposure and Chief Delphi presence. In practice the top 25 will probably be based mostly on votes from a region. If the largest voter density is in Michigan then Michigan teams will obviously get the most votes. Why would Michigan voters vote for an east coast "oddball" (team 1676) that they have never seen. This list may be plagued by the uninformed voter. Unfortunately, I am only pointing out a possible glitch and have no solution to offer. Perhaps none is needed. In the end the list will still have a ton of value. Thanks for all of your effort.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Regional polls is an interesting idea. I know from my perspective, if a regional isn't in New England, and it isn't webcasted, then I won't see it. I assume this is tyhe case for most people in their given regions. The only problems with regions is you'd need a lot of participation. I could see this working in a state like Michigan, but in states with smaller FIRST team populations, it would be hard to get enough people to vote to have a valid poll.


I'm also totally in favor of the "experts" voting. I think we should make 75% of the voting subject to the votes of the experts, then leave 25% of the poll up to anyone that wants to have a say (the public).

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

One of the things Chris Picone and I were discussing is the regional biases. Looking at it from a team density stand point Southeast Michigan has one of the highest team densities of any region in the globe. This means that nearly 100 teams have the ability of going to any of the events in the area and seeing teams. Compare this to Israel where there are a lot of teams but no one outside of Israel sees them (for the most part). I think that it would be very useful to make regional polls (or at least be able to see the regional influence). Since you are collecting team numbers already this should be pretty easy.

Also, was there a final conclusion reached on the experts' anonymity? My personal opinion is that experts should not be anonymous, they would then be forced to defend their opinions openly. Perhaps have them use pen names or something so they don't face personal backlash but still forcing them to remain somewhat consistent in their reasoning.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

As far as the experts remaining anonymous, based on the feedback I'm getting we are going to leave it up to the experts themselves if they chose to reveal their identity. Some will vote with "Looking Forward" type code names and others will vote with their identity revealed.

As far as regional rankings and regional biases no decisions have been made.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

I'd like to see specific regional polls as well. And national pollsters should be taken equally from each region. (e.x 6 regions: Northeast, South, Midwest, Michigan and North country, West, and Northwest.) Each region would be represented by a set number (e.x. 3) of pollsters, for a total of 18 (in my example.)

I also think it should be a requirement for national pollsters to publish their ballots in a dedicated thread, whether as themselves, or with a pen name, it's up to them.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

HAW!
I luv Top Gear!
I actaully did a poll on my DA page asking which show was cooler: Top Gear or Mythbusters.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

The BBC verison is awesome.... But mythbusters is great show too...

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Hey everyone,

I just want to give a quick update on how things are going and what direction we're headed.

The website is being updated to display 2 polls on the homepage. One "public" poll, where anyone can vote, and one "Expert Poll of Polls" where we will combine the votes of the experts to rank the Top 25 FRC teams.

Near the bottom of the site, there will be a link that will take you to an area where you can chose to view each experts list individually and view any accompanying articles they wrote to give some insight into their votes.

As far as ranking each individual regional, we think the regional itself will be an adequate measure of ranking the teams present.

We are however excited about the possibility of using the data from both the public and expert polls to provide a Top 10 list for each region.(Northeast, SouthEast, South, Midwest, Northwest, SouthWest.) We chose Top 10 because there may simply not be enough teams voted for to compile a Top 25 for each region. More on the Regional top tens in a later post.

So that's where we are right now. As always, If you have an idea that you think would improve the website or another fun idea to utilize with all the data, please post. Thanks everyone for helping out, Week 1 Regionals are almost here!

-Justin

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Sounds exciting. Good ideas. Can't wait to see how this all works out.