Galileo - The Champion's Division

[brandon.cottrell]

So I had a thought the other day. "What division has won the championship the most?"

Some quick counting revealed that:
Galileo has won 5 times
Newton has won 4 times
Archimedes has won 2 times
Curie has won 1 time

I was surprised to see it wasn't Newton, but I kind of also figured that it would be a mix of all 4 divisions.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by Brandon1266

Curie has won 1 time

You might want to check that one again.

[Jscout11]

Galileo has also won the past three years, making them 3-0 in the St. Louis era.

[AlexD744]

I think the actual numbers are G-5, N-4, A-3, C-0. (assuming there were no division before 2001, anyone who's been around longer please correct me if I'm wrong)

Also note, Galileo has won 5 of the last 6, only to be upset by Newton in 2010.

[Calvin Hartley]

Intiresting, where did you get these numbers?

[Peter Matteson]

Galileo never won a championship until 2008.
Did they really win every championship from 2008-2013 except 2010?

[Nemo]

Originally Posted by Peter Matteson

Galileo never won a championship until 2008.
Did they really win every championship from 2008-2013 except 2010?

Yes, this is true. That's pretty interesting.

[Jessica Boucher]

Having been the VC for that field from 2006 - 2012, that sounds about right.

[brandon.cottrell]

Originally Posted by Calvin Hartley

Intiresting, where did you get these numbers?

The Blue Alliance

Originally Posted by AlexD744

I think the actual numbers are G-5, N-4, A-3, C-0. (assuming there were no division before 2001.

Did you get that number from not counting the division in 2001? Because that was the year Curie won.

[AGPapa]

Originally Posted by Brandon1266

Did you get that number from not counting the division in 2001? Because that was the year Curie won.

This has Newton winning 2001.

2001:N
2002:N
2003:A
2004:A
2005:N
2006:A
2007:N
2008:G
2009:G
2010:N
2011:G
2012:G
2013:G

The BlueAlliance has no data for 2001, where did you get your information?

[PayneTrain]

What would be really interesting is knowing this with the context of when FIRST changed the sorting algorithm. (I forgot)

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

What would be really interesting is knowing this with the context of when FIRST changed the sorting algorithm. (I forgot)

Is the algorithm they use now known?

[PVCpirate]

Originally Posted by Jay Money 1058

Is the algorithm they use now known?

I remember someone saying that the divisions used to go by team number, like team 1 in Archimedes, team 11 in Galileo, 20 in Curie, 25 in Newton and then repeating. I don't think we know for sure what it is now, but I think someone might know what year they stopped doing the old one.

[Nemo]

Originally Posted by PVCpirate

I remember someone saying that the divisions used to go by team number, like team 1 in Archimedes, team 11 in Galileo, 20 in Curie, 25 in Newton and then repeating. I don't think we know for sure what it is now, but I think someone might know what year they stopped doing the old one.

I have no idea what their sorting algorithm is (I took a crack at figuring it out once and got nowhere). But I can tell you what I'd do if I had to solve that problem. I'd generate some random divisions and see if they looked approximately balanced. I'd be looking for balance in several ways: competitive teams, former champions, Hall of Fame teams, rookies, waitlist teams, etc. If it looked too imbalanced or had a division that was too similar to the previous year or two, I'd throw it out and keep doing random ones until I got one that looked good. That would make the "algorithm" pretty hard to solve.

[AdamHeard]

This would never happen, but I'd like to see four experts (Karthik, Paul C, someone nominate two others?) each represent a division. They would then take turns drafting the entire division by whatever thought process they individually desired. Their own 4 teams would be not included in this draft, and then randomly assigned to the 4 after the divisions are set.

I think we'd see some incredibly balanced divisions in a way anything FIRST does could never match.