Proof that districts work: PNW

[Thad House]

The PNW has never been a superpower at worlds. We have sent teams into eliminations at worlds, but getting far has not happened much. Before this year, only 2 teams have ever made it to a division finals from the PNW, and neither one of them made it to Einstein.

This year, we sent 10 teams, out of the 24 we sent, into eliminations. Over on Archimedes, we had an all PNW alliance at #2, which was 2907, 3393, 2557 and 4911. Also, 4077 was the #6 alliance captain. The #6 alliance lost in the quarters, but the #2 made it to semi's

Over on newton, 1983 was picked in the 3rd round by the #6 alliance, and they made it all the way to finals.

On Curie, 2928 was the #3 alliance captain, going undefeated. They made it to the semi's as well.

Then over on Galileo, we had both 4488 and 1318 on the #2 alliance as the 1st and 2nd picks. We made it to the finals as well. 488 was 3rd pick by the #4 alliance, and made it to the semi's.

So this year, we put 10 teams in elims. 9 made it out of quarters, and 3 made it out of semi's. We went from only have 2 teams ever make it to division finals, to having 5. I directly attribute this to the great quality of robots that we sent because of districts, and I think that within the next year or 2 we will finally cross the hump, and send a PNW team to Einstein.

We had such an amazing time at worlds this year, and the entire region plans on coming back with firepower next year.

Go Pacific Northwest!!!

[MikeE]

Teams from Districts made up 27% of the teams at Championships but 42% of the teams in eliminations and 38% of teams on Einstein (6 of 16).

Unsurprisingly FiM had an outsized impact with over 75% of the Michigan teams competing in Elims, but each Districts outperformed the non-District teams on average.

[OrangeCataclysm]

Small correction, 488 only made it to the quarters in Galileo.

[DonRotolo]

Yep, we caught on to that 2 years ago in MAR, after watching Michigan win it all for a while...

[flippy147852]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Yep, we caught on to that 2 years ago in MAR, after watching Michigan win it all for a while...

2009 Einstein never forget

[Navid Shafa]

This year, the PNW made up 6% of teams at the Championship and we managed to bring in ~6.5% of Division Awards:

Division Finalists: 4488, 1983 and 1318.
Gracious Professionalism: 4077
Innovation in Control: 1540

The PNW also managed to have an above average seed placement, with an average Rank of ~41/100 per division.

Originally Posted by Thad House

The PNW has never been a superpower at worlds. We have sent teams into eliminations at worlds, but getting far has not happened much. Before this year, only 2 teams have ever made it to a division finals from the PNW, and neither one of them made it to Einstein.

I know the PNW has never hit Einstein, but I'd have to do some more digging, because I think we might be missing something.

Off the top of my head I know 1983 went to Division Quarters and Semis twice each with a Finals run this year. I thought that 1318 might have gone to the finals in 2009, or that Mean Machine might have gone to the finals in 2012 with 1717/469. Both went out in Semis though. I know 488 went to the Finals on Archimedes in 2009, because I remember watching it. Looking it up I saw 1510 also went to the Finals in 2005 on Curie. Are those the Finalists you are referring too? I think we might be missing one...

[Patrick Flynn]

Could someone do a comparison removing teams that qualified to champs only based on being the 3rd alliance pick?

This is a really bad conclusion to say that districts made the area, PNW, MAR, FIM, NE better. They forced these regions to send better teams to champs because of the points systems.
I believe if you do compare apples to apple you will see much closer numbers. Yes more matches help teams.

[PaW]

Originally Posted by Navid Shafa

... I thought that 1318 might have gone to the finals in 2009...

The IRS alliance (1318,973,25) was knocked out in the semis on Galileo that year.

[Navid Shafa]

Originally Posted by PaW

The IRS alliance (1318,973,25) was knocked out in the semis on Galileo that year.

Originally Posted by Navid Shafa

Both went out in Semis though.

Yep, it was a shame too. What a great robot...


*Edit: Paul, I'd love to hear about your experience this season. Not getting to attend any events with 1899 was strange, and one of the downsides of districts. You put out another beautiful looking machine and I'd love to hear how 2014 was and what you have in store for 2015. Hope to see you next year!*

[Link07]

I'll put up some MAR stats while we're talking about districts

There was a MAR team on the finals of each division this year (including Einstein)

Since 2012 and the foundation of MAR, we've had 4 unique teams on Einstein (25, 303, 1640 x 2, 2590).

25 won Einstein in 2012.

2014 Champs:

MAR represented 5.75% of all teams at Champs, at 23 teams.

MAR made up 7.03% of elimination teams, at 9 teams selected to play on an elims alliance (11, 25, 193, 225, 341, 1218, 1640, 2590)

2590 was the only alliance captain.
341 was taken in the first round
11, 25, 225, 1640 were taken in the second round
193, 1218, 2016 were taken in the third round. 193 and 2016 did not play any elims matches.

Awards:

Archimedes Winner - 2590
Newton Winner - 1640
Newton Finalist - 341
Galileo Finalist - 1218
Curie Finalist - 2016
Einstein Finalist - 1640
Archimedes Entrepreneurship - 2590
Newton Creativity - 25

Total - 8

[jbsmithtx]

Praying that Texas moves to a district system this year. We've got some serious competition already, and moving to a district model like this would only make it better and would send all of the right teams. Really looking forward to this...

[nikeairmancurry]

As Link07 did for MAR, I'll do for FiM

Since 2009 and the foundation of FiM, we've had 10 unique teams on Einstein (33, 51, 67 x3, 68, 74, 217 x2 , 247, 469 x3, 548, 862).

67 winning in 09, 10. 469 and 74 winning in 14.

2014 Champs:

FiM represented 8.5% of all teams at Champs, at 34 teams.

FiM made up 20.3% of elimination teams, at 26 teams selected to play.

27, 51, 67, 503, 862, 910, 1718, 2054 and 2137 were alliance captains.
33, 70, 314, 469, 1023, 2337, 3539 were taken in the first round
494, 573, 1918, 2959 were taken in the second round
68, 74, 217, 548, 2834, 3098 were taken in the third round. 217 did not play any elims matches.

Awards:

Curie Winner - 74, 469
Galileo Winner - 67
Archimedes Finalist - 27, 33
Curie Finalist - 573, 1718

Einstein Winner - 74, 469
Galileo Highest Rookie Seed/Rookie All Star - 4967
Galileo Team Spirit - 1023

Chairman's Award - 27

Total - 13

[dtengineering]

I'm a fan of districts, and a fan of the PNW district in particular. I'll agree that there is a correlation between PNW teams having an improvement in results at worlds and the introduction of a district structure this year.



But I'd also suggest that the PNW has grown up a lot in the past five years. We used to have a few teams out here that could compete on a world stage, but back east there would be dozens of teams that good, and they would push each other to excellence.



It has been a real pleasure to watch the PNW grow, first in team numbers and then in experience, over the past several years. To be fair, PNW isn't quite as competitive yet as Ontario, Michigan and the other big regions, but it is a lot closer than it used to be. Districts help, but the simple reason PNW did better this year is because the PNW is the best it has ever been... and it keeps getting better.



Districts make a difference, but lets also credit the students, mentors, volunteers, sponsors, and especially the PNW leadership team who have made this kind of advancement possible.



Jason

[bduddy]

I don't think any of the arguments against districts stated that districts would make teams in that area less competitive.

[AndrewPospeshil]

I don't necessarily think Districts make teams better. At least, it's not the cause, it's the effect. Areas that require districts already have a lot of teams, which are then going to have more really good teams that can make it to elims. Really districts basically says "hey, we have a lot of teams here." It doesn't mean that the teams are better - although they are by sheer virtue of having more teams means that there will be more world-class contenders. Also, FiM has a lot of teams that didn't move on to Worlds that still made it to MSC and are better than a lot of the teams that were at St Louis. I think that these mid-level Michigan teams could compete at worlds, but the limit that Michigan could send held them back.