What Happened to 968 (RAWC)?

[TheFish]

In the last two years, 968 has only gone to 1 regional, and hasn't performed well at either of them. Does anyone know what happened to this former powerhouse?

2006: 2x Regional Wins & Einstein Finalist
2007: 21-13-1 Record (8-1 at IRI)
2008: 1x Regional Win & Newton Winner (#1 rank)
2009: 12-2 Record. #1 Seed


2012: 4-5-2 (Rank 25)
2013: 10-7-0 (Rank 32)

[ehfeinberg]

Originally Posted by TheFish

2013: 10-7-0 (Rank 32)

The blue alliance has 968 winning the Inland Empire regional, so they must be pretty good. No clue why they only attend 1 regional a year though.

No longer collaborating with 254. This doesn't mean that by themselves they're not great (look at the amazingness at IE), but 254 makes everything better.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

No longer collaborating with 254. This doesn't mean that by themselves they're not great (look at the amazingness at IE), but 254 makes everything better.

This a pretty unfair statement; they were good before 254, and they were good for a bit after.

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

This a pretty unfair statement; they were good before 254, and they were good for a bit after.

They were great before, and after. I just meant that both 254 and 968 brought experience and ideas to the table that made their collaboration extremely effective, which is why when looking at 968 (and 254) through the collaboration years, you can see a heightened level of competition from both of them.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by ehfeinberg

The blue alliance has 968 winning the Inland Empire regional, so they must be pretty good. No clue why they only attend 1 regional a year though.

The were pretty good this year, even though they were selected on the back hand of the draft at IE.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

This a pretty unfair statement; they were good before 254, and they were good for a bit after.

Proof is that the following year (2011) they both competed on Einstein which was so cool to see!

As a big 968 RAWC fan I too have been wondering what happened in the past two seasons.

[Cory]

They lost 3 mentors with close to 40 years of FIRST experience between them.

[Chad987]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Proof is that the following year (2011) they both competed against each other on Einstein which was so cool to see!

As a big 968 RAWC fan I too have been wondering what happened in the past two seasons.

968 never directly played against 254 on Einstein. We lost with them and 51 in the semifinals.

[rsisk]

968 was third pick for 1538 and WARLords and played good defense. One of their mentors is on 696, a team showing great improvements, and 1538, who are already great and getting better.

[Aidan S.]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Proof is that the following year (2011) they both competed on Einstein which was so cool to see!

As a big 968 RAWC fan I too have been wondering what happened in the past two seasons.

Their 2011 robot really stood out to me on my first trip to champs, and remains my favourite robot from Logomotion, and one of favourite bots of all time. The robot had an incredibly sleek and minimalist design, and was extremely effective on the field.

Here is a video of them playing in the semis of the 2011 Madtown Throwdown, with three other great machines (973 emperor swerve, and two 254 bots): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIHPwlAhPPY

And here is an up close video of the machine doing a two tube auto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs_JBPIsJj0

As a big RAWC fan myself, I was very happy to see them win the Inland Empire regional this year, and will be definitely dropping by their pits to check out their machine this year.

[Jon Jack]

Cory is right, they actually lost 4 mentors in 3 years - each with between 8-15 years of experience. It'd be hard for any team to lose that much experience and continue playing at the level 968 played at. Those mentors are now on 254, 696, 1538, 3476. Both 696 and 3476 are becoming top teams in California (as can be seen by their appearance in the finals together at Inland Empire).

That being said, they still build good robots. In fact, we couldn't have asked for a better 2nd pick than 968 at Inland Empire. They were able to score 2-3 in the 3pt goal in auto, able to play defense (they kept 2485 clear to full court in all 6 elimination matches), they could provide emergency scoring and could hang for 10 points. There wasn't a single robot that could do all of that left by the time we picked with the 16th pick.

[sanddrag]

@TheFish, I'm curious who you actually are. PM me maybe?

Anyhow, it's really nice to see my former team remembered. Team 968 RAWC is one of those fantastic teams that often did not get the level of national recognition that seems to come rather easily to others. This is a team full of a lot of rich history and some real stand-up mentors. And one interesting thing to note is that this team has never had any mentors who were actual experienced engineers, and other than a teacher at the school has never had any mentors over the age of 28. I have a lot of great memories from my years spent on 968, the most memorable probably being the 2008 trip to Hawaii and playing against 1114 on Einstein also in 2008.

Originally Posted by Jon Jack

Cory is right, they actually lost 4 mentors in 3 years - each with between 8-15 years of experience. It'd be hard for any team to lose that much experience and continue playing at the level 968 played at. Those mentors are now on 254, 696, 1538, 3476. Both 696 and 3476 are becoming top teams in California (as can be seen by their appearance in the finals together at Inland Empire).

Jon, I'm sorry we didn't have time to directly cross paths this season, but man, you clearly know your team history here. I'll add to it just a bit. The team has actually lost even more mentors than you describe.

Bob Anderson, the founding teacher of Team 968 was no longer able to help after the 2008 season due to a personal reasons and transferring schools, and the team struggled to find and retain a committed and willing teacher in the years following. Travis Covington (one of the founding mentors of 968) moved back up north and joined 254 after the 2008 season when he took a new job in that area. Kirk Oden (another founding mentor of the team) moved to northern California after the 2008 season, took a job there, and got married). Andy Hedge (formerly of 980, now of 3476) and I both said fairwell to 968 after the 2010 season, after we both graduated from Cal Poly Pomona University and took full time jobs away from the West Covina area. Kiet Chau (now of 1538) moved to San Diego after the 2011 season to take a job there. Another mentor became married and started a family after the 2010 season, and needed to really reduce his involvement in the team. Another mentor that helped with fabrication has found himself rather busy with work in recent years. And finally, Jacqueline Ha joined the Army as a combat medic some time around 2009 and sadly passed away to cancer in 2012.

Combined, there were probably close to 100 people-years of experience mentoring this team. I cannot think of any other team that has lost so much experience over a period of only a few years. Today, Richard Medina, originally a student on the team from it's rookie year in 2002, continues as the lead mentor, and the team is still supported by several sponsors in their local area. Team 968 RAWC still carries its demanding standards of quality which were instilled into its culture and methods of operation by Travis from the very beginning. Their dedication, attention to detail, care for aesthetics, and high standards of quality are evident in every piece they produce. I have carried these standards and methods to 696, where I have helped drastically improve their program over the past three years.

Originally Posted by Jon Jack

In fact, we couldn't have asked for a better 2nd pick than 968 at Inland Empire.

Friday night I instructed my students to pick 968 for our 3rd alliance member. They disagreed, and well, it is what it is. I don't think there was any way we we could stop the Holy Cows and Warlords alliance, regardless of who their 3rd partner was. But yes, 968 was a fantastic last pick.

[mmaunu]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Friday night I instructed my students to pick 968 for our 3rd alliance member. They disagreed, and well, it is what it is. I don't think there was any way we we could stop the Holy Cows and Warlords alliance, regardless of who their 3rd partner was. But yes, 968 was a fantastic last pick.

They were an amazing 2nd pick and I was very surprised that they were still available; we, of course, loved having them on our alliance. As Jon said, they could fill every role and played exceptional anti-defense.

[NXTGeek]

Originally Posted by ehfeinberg

The blue alliance has 968 winning the Inland Empire regional, so they must be pretty good. No clue why they only attend 1 regional a year though.

They were last pick. We didn't think to pick them because they weren't scoring, weren't defending, and were still building their robot Friday evening.
Their drive base certainly came in handy during elims however, doing great counter-defense to protect 2485's full-court shooting.