The Quest for Einstein

[wesbass23]

I have never been to Einstein myself so I cannot really speak from experience but there are a few things I think it takes to compete consistently at an elite level. The first thing is good mentors that come back every year. You need mentors who understand FIRST and who are able to devote their time each year to the team. Alongside this you need the full support of your school/community. You cannot constantly be dealing with roadblocks set by your school administration concerning things like fundraising or the number of days of school a student can miss. One of the final things is having a second robot to practice driving and work bugs out with and a place to practice driving. If the first time your students are driving the robot is at a competition, you are going to have a difficult time. Alongside this is having a drive coach or strategist who has been around FIRST for a while, a good robot will only get you so far without good strategy and playcalling. Something to remember is that a good robot looks bad with a bad driver, while a bad robot looks good with a good driver.

Obviously not all of these are necessary, there are teams who consistently do well without these things and there are teams with these advantages that do not do well.