There are rivalries, and then there are rivalries. How about Team 116 against Teams 57, 118, 122, 233, 254, and 330?
To get to the roots of this one, you have to go back in the day. In 1996 NASA supported only two teams in FIRST (Teams 116 and 120), and we had chartered those teams to find out what FIRST was all about. After the experiences of that year we were hooked, and committed to get the entire agency involved with the program. The decision was made to do this as a part of the Telerobotics Research Program that was in place at the time. We met with all the NASA labs that were conducting robotics research, and suckered them in, er, ah, eh, I mean convinced them, that they should all start teams as part of thier ongoing efforts to get more people interested in robotics. To ease any concerns, we also came up with the funding for all their teams, so they didn't have to worry (too much) about how to get the money to get started.
But along with that came a challenge. In 1997 we were starting new teams at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Team 57 with Eleanor Roosevelt High School), NASA Johnson Space Center (118 with Clear Creek Independent School District), NASA Langley Research Center (Team 122 with New Horizons Regional Education Center), NASA Kennedy Space Center (Team 233 with Rockledge High School & Cocoa Beach High School), NASA Ames Research Center (Team 254 with Broadway High School, now with Bellarmine Prep) and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Team 330 with Hope Chapel Academy). All of these labs had scores of robotics researchers and engineers at their disposal to help mentor their new teams. Then there was the existing team stuck with NASA Headquarters (Team 116 with Herndon High School) - full of bureaucrats, lawyers and bookkeepers. In theory they wouldn't have a chance against the mentors on the new teams.
So, when you are in a potentially bad competitive situation, what do you do? There is only one answer - make it worse! I issued a challenge to all the new NASA teams: if any of the NASA centers (staffed with really smart engineers, reseachers, and technicians) had their teams beaten in the FIRST competition year-end ranking by the NASA Headquarters (staffed with really devious bureaucrats, lawyers and bookkeepers) team, then we would obviously have to question their technical ability. So, their research funding would be called up for review and they would have to go to the back of the line to submit new research proposals!
This would definitely make them take the project seriously and put their full effort in to it!
It was all in fun, but it sure got their attention! And every year since then I get reminded about all the times Team 116 came up with or against any of those original NASA teams during the FIRST season, and the outcome of the matches. Sometimes we win, sometimes they win - but we all win every time. It has been a very good-natured competition, and kept us all interested at multiple levels.
But for some reason, there are not quite as many NASA robotics labs around as there used to be...
-dave