Quote:
Originally Posted by Karthik
If you were to trace the lineage of any Canadian team outside of Quebec, every team would lead back to 188.
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While I agree with the spirit of the statement, and don't want to understate the impact that 188 and, in particular, the Breadners, have had on the development of FRC in Canada, I know of at least two teams here in BC that wouldn't trace their lineage back to 188.
1570, for instance, although on hiatus this year, competed for years in the Canada First Robotics competition before switching to FRC when that competition folded.
2273, which competed in 2007 and 2008, got their start in the Skills Canada competition and managed all their fundraising and organization locally. Although we (1346) were able to assist them in their rookie year and encourage them a bit, they would have done it with or without us. As far as I know they are the only Canadian team to have never competed in Canada.
And honestly, while Mark Breadner made a visit to our school to pitch FRC in the spring before we joined, put us in touch with the great folks at 1241 who billeted us our first two years in Toronto, and helped us find the final bit of sponsorship to get out to Toronto in our first year, we had no idea that there was even a team called 188 until we got to the then Canadian Regional. The deciding factor in the formation of our team was one of our students attending Shad Valley (a summer program for gifted students) and after spending a summer with students who had competed in the Canada First Robotics Competition (not FRC), coming back here and convincing the rest of us that we should build "a robot big enough to chase grade 8's down the hallway", as a follow up to the autonomous mini-sumos we had built the previous year and in place of the Electrathon race cars we had been building for years before that.
So I don't want to undermine the spirt of the statement, or downplay the impact that 188 has had... I think every Canadian team could make a two or three degree of seperation link to 188, but some team lineages predate the existence of FRC in Canada, and others clearly trace their lineages to the Skills Canada competition.
Jason
Now, if you're only talking about currently active teams... then the statement might be fairly correct given that 1570 and 2273 aren't competing this year.