[TheFish]

Originally Posted by Kims Robot

Its always different, but I think its around 5 years that most teams start to reach their paces, find their niches and really start to reach stability.
... I think the general average is somewhere around 5 years before a team really hits their stride.

Originally Posted by Cartwright

When does the age of a team not matter? With robot-making, the age can start "not mattering" at 3 or 4 years, yes I agree.

- Jamie

Originally Posted by George A.

So while I would agree that 4 years is enough for teams to find their stride, there are some teams out there that just as quickly (quoting the Rookie All Star Script) "just get it"

Originally Posted by Dancin103

I agree with the four years, that a team finds their niche at that age and gets going in the right direction.
Cass

Originally Posted by quinxorin

I think four years. This is because students only have four years of high school. Students become more experienced as they progress and see more games, and experience more years, but with the exception of the mentors, leave after four years. Therefore, total team experience maxes out at four years.

Note: I took some of the above quotes out of context... but the same point is still there.

So people here in general seem to think that it takes 4-5 years for teams to become relatively stable and have their age not matter.

Let me point out the last Einstein Finals alliances:
67 111 971 217 68 247 (2009)
1114 217 148 67 16 348 (2008)
190 177 987 179 71 233 (2007)
296 217 522 25 968 195 (2006)
56 254 64 330 67 503 (2005)

I´m not necessarily disagreeing with the responses posted... but it makes you wonder when 968, 971, 987 & 1114 are the only ones of a potential 30 (I understand there are some repeat-appearances for teams) that are less than 10 years old. That means 26/30 teams in the Champs Finals in the last 5 years have been very veteran teams.

It seems that even though, in your opinion, we should theoretically have equal expectations between 6 year teams and 12 year teams... the older teams are still always making Einstein and winning it.

Anybody care to shed light on why?