Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Schaddelee
Be from Michigan this is a little hard to say but, I think we need to step up our game.The idea that Michigan teams are the best might be bit arrogant. If I am correct we had zero teams in the finals this year, and only 2 on the Einstein field. Here are my thoughts on what is going on.
I believe in the past districts helped our teams by allowing us more matches and gain more experience but, this advantage is going away.Also based on the number of teams we have I think our districts are getting watered down. I can not tell you before the season we need to go to "X" district if we want to play with the best teams. And if I could I am not sure we could get in due to having home districts. which I totally understand is done to save teams travel expenses.
My point is this ,If you what to be the best you need to play with the best.and learn from the best.Currently we play with the best at State champs, but by then its to late to make improvements. So, Here is my ideas. How about a "super district" event early in the season were the best teams based on the previous year get a invite to come and play. How you pick the teams I don't know but it needs to be based on performance. I think FIM has done a great job in building a great number of team , Now that we have them how do we get better?
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Bolded by me so that I could address some items:
1. Thinking that Michigan teams are the best is very arrogant (no "might be" to it). It would also be difficult to make that conclusion founded in any current logical argument other than relying on some historical data. I believe that most any of those metrics would likely have you pointing more towards CA for concentration of the Crem de la Crem (ironically you can think CA means Canada or California, and you would be able to make a good case for either).
2. Given the current need for points to attend MSC, having more than for "super" teams would have a high probability in one of them not even making it to MSC unless they win their second event (which can often be a coin toss). (check out 910s situation this year who BTW won Windsor and was a finalist in their division).
3rd Bold: In Michigan, we have put a big focus on bringing up the teams that are struggling. Some would refer to it as raising the floor. Overall, the teams did do very well over the weekend, with a lot of teams making elims, and even more advancing within their given division.
32 teams "made it to" Einstein. 3 of those were FiM teams or just shy of 10%. Michigan had 411 of 3124 FRC teams, or right at 13%. This would lead to the conclusion that FiM was "underrepresented", but anyone familiar with statistics would tell you that you are probably within the tolerance band. If you check out each division finals, you would see 7/48(ish) teams were FiM teams which is 14.5% (a little over-representation).
I do think you have observed something that could be real, and may deserve some discussion/reflection by teams wanting to play at Einstein level. For instance, very few Michigan teams focused on lightning fast can grabbers last year, and this year, I would have thought at least a couple "2 ball autos" would have been at MSC. If you want to play at Einstein level, you may want to ask yourself where do you need to be.
Lastly,
Many of the best teams in the world just keep upping their game. Sometimes loosing your position in the lead is not about going slower, but about the field just going a bit faster.
MSC was awesome to watch. There were tons of twists and turns and underdogs taking a stab at (and occasionally slaying) the favorite.
Does Michigan need to step up its game... probably, but so does everyone everywhere. We are getting this to a level that makes it fun to watch by spectators. This fun to watch brings crowds, which is what truly changes the culture in the way we are trying to change.
Which teams get confetti blown on their robot at the end of the season matters much less to me then coworkers, grandparents, and friends and family seeing and hearing about what we are doing and wanting to come be a part of it.*
To put it another way, would you want the top 10 contenders for Einstein to take up an additional 50-100 mentors (5-10 for each team) to have a 50/50 shot at improving from a finalist to a Champion, or would you rather those 50-100 mentors work with about 200-500 kids that currently do not even know about FIRST programs. In reality, this is often the difference. I am not saying that those mentors build the robots, but those mentors often give that extra attention/support that the students need to change a really good robot into a truly great one.
Moskowapplepi:
You were not mistaken. While some may focus solely their teams performance, many focus on what inspires a community. Some of what inspires a community is really great play. Some is having a lot of local teams to go see. Some is about getting many others engaged.
*Which team gets confetti in their robot does matter a lot to me, just not nearly as much as getting the community engaged. That was a factor why I left a great team in order to be an LRI at more events, and to help out other teams that were struggling.