[Jon Stratis]

This question can easily be split into two parts: team versus robot, and the answer may be different for the same team!

For teams:
A rookie team is one that doesn't quite get FIRST yet. they show up for the build season, put together a robot, and do their best. They can win a competition, but their team hasn't advanced much beyond any first year team.

A seasoned team focuses on more than just the robot. They do the community outreach and are working their way towards Chairman's. They don't have things perfected, and they don't have the experience or organization behind them to be a veteran team.

A veteran team has established all aspects of their program. They know what they'll be doing, when they'll be doing it year round. They really understand that it's not all about the robot, and they're able to clearly show the impact the program has had on its students, school, and community.

For robots:
Rookie robots come in many different flavors. Some are as dead simple as you can get. Others try to get complex, but fail in a crucial part (mechanism is too slow, an overly complex drive train impedes their ability to compete, etc). And of course, some need help from other teams to just make it to the field!

Seasoned robots exemplify learning from past games. They find a way to play the game successfully, with a study robot, while avoiding the pitfall of complexity exceeding their ability.

Veteran robots are the ones that show up and blow everyone out of the water. They've figured out how to build a robot that not only works consistently, but does so better than most other robots. We've seen this in our scouting data year after year... there will be 2-3 robots at a regional that do significantly better at scoring than other robots.

You can have a veteran team, one that's been around for 20 years, won Chairman's at Champs, and has a great program set up produce a rookie robot. Turn over in students and mentors really does mean that teams are different every year. Likewise, you can have a rookie team that ignores what all the returning teams "know" about playing a FIRST game, and comes up with an veteran robot that blows everyone else out of the water.