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

[SoftwareBug2.0]

Originally Posted by TheBoulderite

2122 has built great robots in their history, but they've become a strong force in the West over the last two years. They've gone from being picked for alliances to captaining their alliance at two regionals, while being a finalist in the other two. Also, they've been captains in their division twice now, and became the first team from Idaho in history to reach the Einstein Field. They are a rising power and will be a force to be reckoned with next year.

Also, I'm surprised nobody's mentioned 4488. Shockwave had an average first year and a world class robot the next two years. Division finalists both times, DCMP finalists both times. They've become one of the best in a few short years.

I think it's hard calling either 2122 or 4488 most improved. They didn't exactly have slow starts.

2122 has never gone more than one year in a row without winning an event. And it's not because they started out being swept along as a lucky pick. They won a high rookie seed their first year and as early as their second year they were captaining alliances to victory.

It's similar with team 4488. What you call their "average first year" (2013) they were alliance captains at their first event ever and had a winning record at championships.

If you're looking for improvement, look to somebody like 4060 (SWAG). It wasn't so long ago that they went winless at an event (2013orpo) but are today playing in finals matches and holding their own at championships (7-3 in 2016 Hopper division).

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

As a fun exercise (and cuz I had the data already in R and wanted to practice with dplyr) The list of teams that missed eliminations the prior year and then returned to finals in all of their events the next year (for unrelated reasons, I MAY have removed the win column and only have the level of competition they achieved) consists of 70 teams in the data set from 2007 to right before CMP 2016.

PHP Code:

"team"    "year"
238    2016
1452    2016
2227    2016
2875    2016
3267    2016
3533    2016
3679    2016
4087    2016
4121    2016
4156    2016
4195    2016
4264    2016
4455    2016
4508    2016
4625    2016
4740    2016
4744    2016
601    2015
3527    2015
354    2014
2585    2014
2935    2014
3382    2014
3472    2014
3536    2014
145    2013
981    2013
1691    2013
1751    2013
2353    2013
2501    2013
3251    2013
4814    2013
167    2012
333    2012
922    2012
1769    2012
2034    2012
2084    2012
2151    2012
2389    2012
3676    2012
125    2011
540    2011
1006    2011
1541    2011
2165    2011
3802    2011
383    2010
847    2010
1329    2010
1546    2010
1937    2010
590    2009
743    2009
885    2009
1095    2009
1571    2009
61    2008
94    2008
702    2008
1111    2008
1164    2008
1652    2008
1677    2008
1803    2008
580    2007
623    2007
930    2007
2175    2007 


Are you including divisions at championships and district championships in "all events"? If so, that eliminates many teams that clearly improved dramatically.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by Twepeler

I know it's biased to put my own team but we have made very great strides in a short time. in the span of 2005-2008 we had never gone past qualifying. then in 2009 we made it to eliminations but didn't get passed quarterfinals. After that we went silent yet again all the way through 2014. In 2015 during the Indianapolis Event we became 8th seed alliance captain, made it to semifinals got red carded and didn't advance to finals despite having the points. At the Kokomo event of 2015 we were 6th alliance captain. In 2016 at the Walker Warren event we were 2nd pick of the 7th alliance, and lost in quarters. At the Perry Meridian Event we were 3rd Alliance captain and lost in semifinals to the winning alliance. At the Indiana State Championship we were 2nd pick for the 2nd seed alliance and won state. In just two years we made so much progress

I'd agree although your breakout IMHO began in 2014... you guys even won two awards over the rapid improvement at Boilermaker Regional 2014. Mike Taylor got a WFFA and Alex Shutte was a Dean's list finalist. Off the field you guys have been great for longer (hosting CAGE match, etc.) but ever since 2014 you've been good on the field, too.

I'll also mark myself guilty of naming a team of past affiliation, by adding 1747 to the list. Back in the days I was involved and the two years before (2006-2010) we could build a solid drivetrain (as in pushing multiple opposing robots at once solid) but only once fielded a good offensive bot (2009). 2011, the first year of my absence, something changed, and they built a competitive bot and more importantly went from having low team spirit to winning a team spirit awards. Since then things have been up and down but last year they were a dark horse and this year were one of the best teams in Indiana (and that's saying something). It's a different team than the team I left, and different in a very good way.

Yeah, it's not like the rapid improvement of teams like 2481 or 1678, but it's the lesser examples that often get overlooked and warrant a mention.

[TAlholm]

Speaking for 1991, we went from having a VERY surprisingly rigid bot in 2014 that we couldn't find out how it wasn't breaking, and in 2015 we heavily stepped up our material use, design process, and manufacturing techniques. That 2014 bot was mostly 8020 and the kit chassis.

The 2015 bot used mostly aluminum tubing. Luckily, a parent stepped up to teach welding, and I think everyone on the team was grateful. And the swerve drive, although based on our 2012 design, was neat.

tl;dr: Robot quality was heavily improved between 2014 and 2015.

May as well add that our outreach is fairly huge now, watch out for more awards