[Brian Maher]

Originally Posted by Ben Martin

25, 341, 1218, and 2590 were local sources of inspiration for us as we grew our program. Especially 341 -- Daisy's 2012 robot is referenced in some way every year as we design the current year's robot

I agree with all of these, but especially 341 and 2590.

My first competition was the 2012 Springside-Chestnut Hill District Event, where 341 was in attendance. For anyone unfamiliar with Miss Daisy in 2012, they attended two district events, the Boston regional, MAR Champs, and Curie. They seeded first at all of them and went undefeated in elimination matches until Curie Finals. Their fast, crazy-accurate bot was one of the first FRC robots I had ever seen. It that made me think, "wow, someday I want to help make something that amazing." Five seasons later, they were also pretty great to be on an alliance with. In addition to building cool robots, 341 is one of the nicest teams out there.

My first especially memorable encounter with 2590 was at the 2014 MAR Championship. By some miracle, after winning our first event as the second-to-last pick (after only being picked once in all our previous years) and going unpicked at our second, we managed to seed second. We had no prior scouting experience because we were never in a position to pick (a bad reason not to scout, since scouting data helps win quals, but that's beside the point), so we made a hectic attempt to scout and prepare for alliance selection. In quarterfinals, the #7 alliance of 2590, 11, and 341 beat us in two and went on to win the event. I was amazed that they were able to put together such a powerful alliance from the #7 spot. It showed me the awesome power of scouting and inspired me to spearhead new scouting ventures on 1257. Before MAR Champs 2014, I was far from the most motivated member of 1257, but with scouting and strategy I had finally found my niche.

I'd also like to mention a few other amazing teams from MAR.

1626 has helped us so much over the years, both at competitions and build/off-season mentorship. They were the first to really believe in us. Their assistance in fixing our robot was the reason we had a operational, competition-legal robot at the 2011 NYC Regional after our students had misunderstood some key robot rules. The next year, 1257's lead mentor retired after the 2011 season and our wonderful current lead mentor stepped up to the role with only one year of FRC experience (one of two returning mentors). They provided us with much-needed direction and guidance that we didn't really have with our lack of experience. Fast-forward to 2014: they were the second team to ever pick us, inviting us join their alliance at a district event, which we won. It was a really inspiring event for many on the team, myself included, who had never experienced any success at competition beyond one quarterfinals appearance. They are not only a major reason 1257 still exists but also big lesson to us about what coopertition (as cheesy as it may sound sometimes) is really about: helping others so we can all take away more from this wonderful program.

225 is certainly on my list. What inspires me most about TechFire is their impressive rise to success and how much their history resembles 1257, but shifted a few years earlier. The team disbanded and re-formed a few years later under new leadership, and after a few rough years, gradually upped their game from going unpicked at both events in 2011 to winning a few events and consistently making elims/captaining alliances (around where 1257 is now) to triple-banner seasons in 2015 and 2016. They've taken to building some of my favorite robots to watch in action. Their 2016 robot includes a sophisticated auto-aiming arm and their 2015 bot grabs totes two-at-a-time from the landfill and builds stacks by piling them up on the scoring platform. They're also a pleasure to be on an alliance with, as they're quite a nice team.