While all the criteria thrown out so far has been very true, I think the main way you become an "elite" team is by helping other teams and making a difference (thats how you win the chairman's award and get into the hall of fame now isn't it?).
Teams that just win all the time, at least in my opinion, don't sustain the same kind of respect as teams that utilize robotics as a way to help others and make a difference. Because lets face it, you can have a bad year and lose all that "street cred" you had built up, but if you are known as a team that is always there, not only at the competitions when the judges are marking on their little cards, but in the build season when its only you, and God is marking on his little cards
. Thats when it really matters.
I would rather have a team of 20 kids that wanted to have fun and make a difference, than an entire armada of engineers.
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