[EricH]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

That's weird: a number in the 300s usually indicates a rookie year of 1999 or later (by which time the numbers were being assigned by the current method). Is it possible that the team skipped 1998 and 1999, and when they rejoined, 82 was already assigned, and 330 was available? Or was it one of those situations where the team and sponsor split up, and the school ended up re-forming a team under a different identity?

(If FIRST's site were accessible today, I would check their records....)

It gets worse...61, 82, 330, 207, 294. Which numbers go to which team?

Back in 1997, SoCal had barely heard of FIRST. Two teams existed--team 22 in Chatsworth and team 61 in the Beach Cities. 61 was made up of four schools, maybe more. In 1998, 61 split three ways due to politics. All three are still around, but here is the breakup: 82 (Beach'Bots), 294 (Beach Cities Robotics, two schools), 207 (Vultures, now Metalcrafters, same school). Then, in 1999, 82 had a sponsor's name change (I think--either that or the application was much later), and 1999 was the last year that numbers were assigned by sponsor. The result? Team 330, the Beach'Bots, have their rookie year in 1999, but started before then. The next year, the numbers locked into time-of-joining.

By the way, the distinctive feature of Beach'Bot 2 (1999) was its rotating wheels to get onto the puck and control it.

Check the FIRSTwiki site; it gives a little better description right now.

Oh yeah, I've heard rumors that another school had a member on 61. The school I'm thinking about joined 1197 last season.