FIRST records

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

But like Andrew said, you couldn't beat the robot/driver/team combination, if you really think about it, Simbotics was the most dominant team in 2008. Its not about the robot, its how you use the robot that counts.

I'm mostly speaking from a strictly "all other things equal" comparison (which I should have made to clear and I guess isn't very simple to accurately judge) in terms of the robot. Given 1114's drive team, strategy, scouting, pit crew, and... team, they could have won the Championship with several 2008 robots.

Anyway, back to records now, shall we? Can anyone contest Wildstang for most consecutive "trophy year"s?

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I'm mostly speaking from a strictly "all other things equal" comparison (which I should have made to clear and I guess isn't very simple to accurately judge) in terms of the robot. Given 1114's drive team, strategy, scouting, pit crew, and... team, they could have won the Championship with several 2008 robots.

Anyway, back to records now, shall we? Can anyone contest Wildstang?

Which is exactly what we were saying.

[BrendanB]

Okay so you all have made some pretty good statements. Yes I will say that team 1114 was the dominant team not robot in 2008. We sat in front of them at IRI in 2008. Their scouts had these huge binders each and our team had a simple sheet of paper for each team the entire weekend, and it was very intimidating for us . 1114 has a very strong team altogether, but I will stand behind what I said that they had a good robot, not dominant.

@chris- Yes they had 7 losses all season, but that doesn't mean they are unstoppable. Midwest had some pretty good teams there, but they weren't scoring 120+ points a match. 111, 1625, and 16 brought a lot up against them but they did overcome it. Now as for GTR and Waterloo. Those are two regionals which (please these are my thoughts and feelings on these regionals from 2008, not all the time) had little competition against 1114. Together with 2056 anyone could bet that there would be little to no opposition against them. So those two regionals were easish wins, but they were still earned by them.

Just remember everyone, what I said is based on what I have seen both personally and online. Believe me, and my mother will vouch for me. 2008 I watched way too many videos than I probable should have, and those were the conclusions that I have come up with.

[Paul Copioli]

BrendanB,

You have a right to your opinion, but in my 10 years of FIRSTonly two robots come to mind with the word domination: 71 in 2001 and 1114 in 2008.

No one else was even close during the regular season. You can't make a judgment based on what you saw at IRI. I saw these guys all season and they dominated the field. On Galileo, they were unstoppable. Both 16 and 67 were against them in the finals on Einstein and we all know how that turned out. Pretty much any two robots from Galileo matched with 1114 would have made it out of that division. We called it the Simbot Lottery.

Paul

[NickE]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Better robot from 08? IMHO:

71, 254, 968, 217, & 1625

I do love our 08 Robot, Barricade, but I would say that 1114's was a better design for Overdrive.

1114's 2008 robot was amazing. They might have been beatable in a few matches, but when paired with another good team, they were pretty much unstoppable. Sure, if they had come out of Galileo with no scoring alliance partners and were up against 968/233 and 67/16 they could probably be beat, but thats besides the point as their dominance assured them that they would be able to pick another good robot.

The only other robots that I have heard of which came close to that dominance were teams 71 and 60 in 2002 (71 eventually beating 60 at the Championship). 1114 2008 is certainly the most dominant robot in my time in FIRST, but 2 seasons isn't saying too much.

[Wayne TenBrink]

Most matches ever played by a robot in a season?

During Lunacy (thanks to the MI district format), teams 67 and 1918 each played 87 matches between districts, State, and the Championship.

Including post-season competitions (TARDEC/IGVC, MARC, and WMRI), Team 1918 played a total of 141 matches.

I think that may be the most. Does anybody know of a robot that has played more?

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by Wayne TenBrink

Most matches ever played by a robot in a season?

During Lunacy (thanks to the MI district format), teams 67 and 1918 each played 87 matches between districts, State, and the Championship.

Including post-season competitions (TARDEC/IGVC, MARC, and WMRI), Team 1918 played a total of 141 matches.

I think that may be the most. Does anybody know of a robot that has played more?

Probably 217 they did go to the midwest regional as well as the district comps, states, and champs.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

Probably 217 they did go to the midwest regional as well as the district comps, states, and champs.

Nope, HOT beats 217 by (drum roll please) 1 match. 99 vs 98.

[Peter Matteson]

I believe 111 in 2009 is the only team to win a Championship without losing a match at the Championship event i.e. 17-0.

177 has the most Einstein appearances at 5.
71 and 217 have 4 each.

25, 177 and 217 each have won 3 different Championship divisions.
25 needs Galileo
177 needs Curie
217 needs Newton

[James Dowd]

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

You have a right to your opinion, but in my 10 years of FIRSTonly two robots come to mind with the word domination: 71 in 2001 and 1114 in 2008.
Paul

I actually sat out the 2008 season, so I can't comment on that, but almost a decade later, I'll never forget how dominant that 71 machine from 2001 was.

[Wayne TenBrink]

Regarding the most matches in a season: The Blue Alliance data includes the IRI. During the "regular season", HOT played 87 matches and the Thunder Chickens played 85. I believe that both attended other post-season competitions in addition to the IRI, so their "overall" totals would be more than what shows on TBA.

Regarding dominant robots: Team 71 in 2001 was long before my time in FRC, but the fact that so many people still talk about it says a lot. Team 1114 in 2008 was the most dominant I have seen. Both these robots were able to "dominate" because they had a strong organization and a unique design. Every year it seems that most robot designs can be lumped into certain "types". In 2008, there were a lot of good hurdlers, but the Simbot dominated because its simple and effective ball collector was't just the best of its "type" - it was the only one of it's type and it worked great! From what I hear, the same was true of Team 71's robot in 2001 - it was the only one of its "type" and it worked great. You can have an excellent machine, but its hard to dominate when it is just the best its "type". A lot of "unique" machines do poorly (we have the experience to prove that!). However, when you come up with the killer design that others missed, and your team behind knows how make the most of it, then you can truly dominate the field.

[Collin Fultz]

I'm gonna have to throw 71's 2002 walking bot in the discussion for dominance as well. It probably doesn't show in their match results, but that's because the scoring was different then.

In 2002, your score for a match you won was something like (Your Score) + 2*(Opponent's Score), so you wanted to win a very close match (like now but on steroids). If you lost it was 2X your score or something like that. Winning the individual match was almost secondary. Hammond's bot wasn't designed for this type of scoring. It was designed to do one thing, dominate each match. The Qualification rounds were basically a tournament to determine who'd get to draft The Beast.

I remember, very distinctly, sitting in our brainstorming rooms shortly after kick-off, and our lead mentor saying, "Just wait until you freshmen see Hammond walking down the field juggling all three trailers." Little did he know how right he'd be.

I'm also in agreement that 1114's 2008 bot (and team) was one of THE BEST ever. Their average margin of victory was something like 63 points; whereas their average margin of defeat was around 12. There's also something to be said that they only lost 2 matches all year when they got to pick their partners.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Peter Matteson

177 has the most Einstein appearances at 5.
71 and 217 have 4 each.

71 ties 177 for Einstein appearances; they took Finalist in 2007 to go along with those four wins. They lost that year to none other than 177, 987, and 190.

Number of Championship wins:
71: 4 (and a finalist)
217, 67, 111, 148: 2 each; 67 and 111 have the added bonus of the Chairman's Award
All other championship winners have one win each.

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by EricH

71 ties 177 for Einstein appearances; they took Finalist in 2007 to go along with those four wins.

Incorrect 71's first Championship was 1997 before Einstein was the final four division. Einstein and divisions came into existence in 2001. Also that would still make it 6 to 5, 71 knocked 177 out in the championship semi-final that year which would equate to the first round on Einstein.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by Wayne TenBrink

Both these robots were able to "dominate" because they had a strong organization and a unique design. Every year it seems that most robot designs can be lumped into certain "types". In 2008, there were a lot of good hurdlers, but the Simbot dominated because its simple and effective ball collector was't just the best of its "type" - it was the only one of it's type and it worked great! From what I hear, the same was true of Team 71's robot in 2001 - it was the only one of its "type" and it worked great. You can have an excellent machine, but its hard to dominate when it is just the best its "type". A lot of "unique" machines do poorly (we have the experience to prove that!). However, when you come up with the killer design that others missed, and your team behind knows how make the most of it, then you can truly dominate the field.

What exactly made 1114's design 'one of a kind'? 503's robot was very similar overall. There pickup, which you mention, was very similar to 1625 (who had two rollers not one).

I contend that 1114 was not sucessful only because of their design. I'm sure you could have given 1114's design to every team at kickoff and only a very select few teams would be as good. 1114's attention to detail, drive for sucess, driver practice and stratedy was what made them different. Every time they had a match, you knew they would have the best strategy, get atleast 4 lines with 2 balls knocked down, and would get atleast 4 hurdles. Teams could have similar autonomous points or have the same amount of hurdles, but no team could do both of them nearly every single match. It wouldn't be fair for me to speak about any team before 2006, but since Aim High, there has been no team close to how dominate 1114 was in 2008.