[Christopher149]

To preface, I joined 857 as a freshman in 2008, and have mentored it since 2012. Also, this is a bit longer than I was expecting.

2002-2004 was pretty good for the team, winning awards and or getting into Eliminations at at least one event each year. Then 2005-2008 was a significant dry spell, achieving neither.

2009 and the introduction of districts in Michigan is probably one of the best things to happen to our team. That year, we again got into Eliminations and were a hair's-breadth from advancing to semifinals. 2010-2012 found us with some not-so-good robots, but we found ourselves in Eliminations some more (including #7 captain at West Michigan in 2011 by some magic, though 1918 was unstoppable). Those robots taught us some useful lessons, including: we can finally score in autonomous (2011, 2012), don't over-complicate (2012), focus on important, well-done features (2010-2012).

2013 was definitely a year that began our team's recent, rapid improvement. We focused on a 2-point goal shooter with a 10-point hang, and could consistently score 30-40 points in a match. For the first time (AFAIR) we were a captain's first pick, being picked by 217 ThunderChickens at TC, and we comfortably made semifinals. Because of this, we managed to squeak into MSC as the 64th invite. The scale and quality of the event must have made us hungrier to do better.

In 2014, we were again a solid first pick at Escanaba, and won our first award in TEN years. At TC, we were #1 seed, finalist, and EI winner. As I said in another thread, it was surreal. We went to MSC as a much stronger contender, and qualified for CMP. To answer the OP, this is our closest point to achieving the "now what?" status. Well, we're working at gaining more sponsors (and more long-term sponsors) after losing several big ones from the Great Recession. We continue to strive to build effective robots, and so far in 2015 have again had a high seed and made Playoffs. Even more special, though, is winning Industrial Design at Kentwood, our first design award in 11 years. And, one goal we're striving for is to make Playoffs at MSC if possible.

To Kevin's comments, I too hope we can keep our humility, after I have seen the "bad" years but some newer students have only seen our "good" years.

And to JamesCH95's comments, I think our sister team 2586 is picking themselves up in a similar way: they built a non-defense bot this year out of necessity, and have won their first award ever (Creativity).