What teams have improved the most in the shortest amount of time?

[Nathan Streeter]

This thread is an interesting one to me, as I like "the numbers" and love seeing or hearing the story behind the numbers... I hope to see it growing!

Really, every good team - whether just "regionally strong" or "internationally elite" - became who they are at some point. For some teams they started out really good or exceptionally good from the beginning (2056 and 1902 come to mind), for other teams they've been so good for so long that we can hardly remember when they weren't exceptional (33, particularly?), and for still other teams their ascent to fame has been gradual and incremental.

One team that I'd like to suggest is mentioned here may not make sense to a lot of people (and hasn't had the biggest improvement in the shortest amount of time), is 118. They've been building marvels of engineering since I've been involved in FIRST (2005)... it wasn't until - I think - 2011 that they really started performing on-field at the level that they'd seemingly been building robots at for years. Now, it'd be shocking if they didn't win a handful of blue banners and make it deep in elims at CMP! (although this year they got stuck with some lousy team from New Hampshire at Champs to hold them back from glory... * sigh *) At any rate, I think their most representative pre-2011 season was 2008. Their 2008 robot had a swerve drive, with an excellent catapult to make quick shots (those balls weighed 8-10lbs, btw), they had a pickup that looked like 217's successful design, and to top it all off, their whole upper assembly could rotate (yes, on top of their swerve drive). Phenomenal. Watch their reveal video, released at the beginning of week 4 in the build season! Surely they were in the finals on Einstein losing to the tremendous 1114-217-148 alliance? No, they did alright, but didn't win a blue banner that year and never topped an elim score of 90 points. Their other robots of that era were similar. In 2011 (and onwards) they've still developed phenomenal robots (although now the reveal videos are of the powder-coated robots around bag day), but they've won blue banners left, right, and center and have added several Einstein appearances. Perhaps someone from 118 would like to weigh in to either dismiss this "trend" or to explain it with some back story?

148 actually falls into a bit of a similar category, in that they really weren't over-powering until 2008 (and perhaps some would argue 2009), and have since been at the absolute top-notch, world-class level.

195 is really a great example. They had real success earlier in team history (an Einstein appearance in 2006, for instance), but 2008-2010 were real down years... 0 awards after 2007 UTC regional until the 2011 WPI regional!! 2011 through 2013 they built momentum back up with very strong robots. From 2014 to now, there definitely has not been a stronger team in New England. This year I think 195 really entered the conversation of that truly elite tier (top 5-10 in world).

My own team, 1519, I think is also a good example. We had some success in our early years (mostly just 2006 and 2008), but in 2010 we really clicked and have been strong at the regional level since then (2 banners 2005-2009, 14 banners 2010-2016). Unfortunately it seems our luck always runs out at the Championship level... we've only made it past the quarterfinals in 2012 and 2013 (and 2013 was as the third pick of 33 and 469... it would've been hard to mess that up!). Even then, our shot accuracy was degrading on Einstein, and we didn't design the shooter to be adequately serviceable to replace the shooter wheel and our design really didn't fit any role other than FCS particularly well.

Some other, more recent rises in New England include: 133, 166, 319, and 4564.

133 has been a quality team with success off the field in 2007-2014, but they had very little on-field success in that period. 2014 was improved, 2015 brought a District Win and District Finalist, and now 2016 brought a tremendous amount of success. They had a high OPR at their first district, won their second, made it all the way to the finals at NE CMP as the #1 pick, but lost to an offensive juggernaut in 195-125-2168 in the finals. At the CMP they fought off several issues to make it all the way to their divisional finals, where they almost prevented the eventual world champions from even making it to Einstein!

166 had a very sharp improvement this year - which I expect them to build on. They've also been a quality team off the field for many years and have hosted Mayhem in Merrimack since 2005 or 2006. In 2015, I thought their robot performance had improved and they qualified for DCMP, but in 2016 they really took off, becoming one of the best shooters in all of New England and going as the #1 pick on Curie with the division's highest OPR.

319 had also been very quiet for a lot the team's history. Some years were better than others, but they'd never won a banner until this year. In 2015 they showed very big improvement on-field and had a very cool 3-tote (plus 2 can? 1 can?) auto. It took them until the off-season to really get it clicking, but they set the stage for this year, when the fielded a very capable, versatile robot that won two district events.

4564 didn't have the long period to set the stage that these other teams did... Instead, in their first two years there were all the signs of a future district-winning team. They won Rookie All-Star in 2013, then in 2014 fielded a stronger robot, pieced together some reasonable alliances (but didn't make it to the finals) and earned a spot at the DCMP. In 2015 they won a district event and finished as a finalist at the other. They made a good showing at DCMP but suffered an early QF exit. In 2016 they didn't end up with a blue banner, but they did field a very strong high goal shooter and innovative climber with which they seeded first at the NE DCMP with 45 RP! They made it all the way to the finals, but lost in three matches (with 133 and 238) to the alliance of 195-125-2168.

I'm interested to hear of more teams and to hear stories from some of these teams!

[robotlover2016]

4818 may not have nearly as much improvement as the teams already mentioned, but this season they went from ranking 58th at the Lake Superior Regional to ranking 5th at the Iowa Regional and being semifinalist.

2175 had a similar story as they were ranked 40th at the Iowa Regional, but then were the #1 seed at the North Star Regional and went on to win the competition.

Both these teams showed an impressive amount of improvement in a single season.

[BaileyJoseph166]

Originally Posted by Aidan Cox

+1


Also going to throw 166 and 238 into the mix.
-166's robots over the past few years have been getting better and better, with this year's being one of my favorite bots of 2016. Looking forward to seeing what they produce in the upcoming years

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

166 had a very sharp improvement this year - which I expect them to build on. They've also been a quality team off the field for many years and have hosted Mayhem in Merrimack since 2005 or 2006. In 2015, I thought their robot performance had improved and they qualified for DCMP, but in 2016 they really took off, becoming one of the best shooters in all of New England and going as the #1 pick on Curie with the division's highest OPR.

As one of the captains of 166 this past year, I really appreciate the comments about our growth these past few years. 166 has for sure been on a steady incline for probably around 4 years or so, slowly tweaking our design process, mechanical and software training, and how we express ourselves to the public and other teams through our Chairman's submissions.

This past year is certainly the culmination of all those tweaks, and I am extremely proud of the team that came together this year, and I know that the robot and the team seen at competitions next year and the years following will be amazing.

I did not want to mention 166 in this thread due to a degree of modesty, but we definitely have improved our overall team quality in far too many ways for one CD post. Anyone feel free to send me a message on what I and the team did in the past year or so, especially if you are in New Hampshire or even NE, I am always up to talk to teams about what we do on 166!