Best Team by State

[cziggy343]

Well, since SC is the state I know the best... I might as well take a crack at that I will look at the three teams that I think are vying for the top spot.

In total awards in the history of the programs (not including regional/division wins):

343- 26
1319- 22
342- 30

In the number of regional chairman's awards:

343- 2
1319- 0
342- 4

Regional/Division Wins:

343- 10 (including 2003 Curie Champions)
1319- 4 (including 2007 Gallileo Champions)
342- 1

Robot Engineering Awards:
343- 11
1319- 5
342- 3

So, if going mostly off of the robot performance, I think that we (343) are far and away the best team in SC. But if going mostly off of the awards, 1319 takes it (because they have had less years to get those awards and are catching up fast.)

My top three from SC:
343
1319
342

Other states that pop into my head...
FL: 233
AR: 16
GA: 1771
VA: 1086
IL: 111
MI: 67
CA: 254
AL: 34
TX: 148
NV: 39
AZ: 842
NJ: 25
NY: 694
RI: 121

[Andrew Schreiber]

Since no one has really debated 67 being king in Michigan I'll throw a new name in the hat. 47.

There are few teams whose name is synonymous with FIRST. Chief Delphi is one of them. Not only are they the team that gave us this wonderful forum they are also the team that brought swerve to FIRST and are at least partially responsible for the NBD white papers. They are home to some of the most dedicated mentors you will find in FIRST. I can personally attest to the spirit this team has; I walked out of my very first event with my ears ringing from the cheering of this team.

In my mind no team can compete with Chief for title of best team in Michigan. 47, now merged with 65 to become 51, is high on my list for most influential teams in FIRST.

[JamesBrown]

Originally Posted by cziggy343

RI: 121

This is an interesting debate. For RI your two obvious options are 121 or 78. 1568 (now defunct) and 1350 have not been consistently successful and 3280 is way too young to qualify.

78 split off of 121 this year, obviously if people didn't know that then it is easy to choose 121. I think that the 121 vs 78 debate comes down to one thing do you count the old 121 awards towards 78, keep in mind that most of 78's mentors were instrumental in 121 winning old awards, some of 78's mentors were 121 students going back into the 90's.

If you count the awards for both teams then I would say that 78 is the best. If you don't then 121 would get the nod because 78 is still a new number. However I would expect going forward that 78 will be the cream of the crop in RI.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

PA - 1712
VA - 116

If only...

Originally Posted by Lee Reid 3136

For Virginia, I'd have to give it to either 1086 or 1522, probably with 1086 edging out 1522 by stint of being a bit more consistent. I think their both great teams, but they may have to start worrying about 3136 in the next year or two, if we can keep competing as well as we did this year.

While 1086 has certainly been very very good since ~2006 (especially since 2007 onwards with the collaboration with 384 until this year), if we consider the history of the state, it gets a lot more interesting. I'm surprised nobody has brought up 122. The NASA Knights are one of the most storied teams in Virginia, and while they haven't quite been on the same standard the past few years and they were earlier in their history, they're still an excellent team.

[Zflash]

Originally Posted by cziggy343

So, if going mostly off of the robot performance, I think that we (343) are far and away the best team in SC.

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
1 1319 343 1319 1319 342 343 343
2 343 342 343 342 1319/343 1319/342 1319
3 342 1319 342 343 342

If you go back to 1319's rookie year of 2004 and compare the robots for each year in my opinion the robot performance area between our two teams is a dead heat. Although I am sure someone will debate my ranking as I do have a slight bias

To be clear though I agree that the top 3 overall teams when considering the team's entire body of work would be.

343
1319 - You can bet we are working on it though!
342
...followed by 2815 and then 1398 which as some have said is one in the same making them a potent force to contend with in upcoming years!

[cziggy343]

Originally Posted by Zflash

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
1 1319 343 1319 1319 342 343 343
2 343 1319 343 342 1319/343 1319/342 1319
3 342 342 342 343 342

If you go back to 1319's rookie year of 2004 and compare the robots for each year in my opinion the robot performance area between our two teams is a dead heat. Although I am sure someone will debate my ranking as I do have a slight bias

If I were to create the same list I would have:

2004
1319 342 343

2005
343 342 1319

2006 (this is the toughest decision for #1)
343 1319 342

2007
1319 343 342

2008
343 1319 342 (although after the improvements from 1319, it was pretty much even for all three teams b/c all three had well above average robots)

2009
343 342 1319 (another close call for all three, but after our improvements for championships I placed us first)

2010
343 1319 342

But I also would want someone with no bias but a knowledge of all three teams to do this list

[nikeairmancurry]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Since no one has really debated 67 being king in Michigan I'll throw a new name in the hat. 47.

There are few teams whose name is synonymous with FIRST. Chief Delphi is one of them. Not only are they the team that gave us this wonderful forum they are also the team that brought swerve to FIRST and are at least partially responsible for the NBD white papers. They are home to some of the most dedicated mentors you will find in FIRST. I can personally attest to the spirit this team has; I walked out of my very first event with my ears ringing from the cheering of this team.

In my mind no team can compete with Chief for title of best team in Michigan. 47, now merged with 65 to become 51, is high on my list for most influential teams in FIRST.

Well, since you there also wasn't been much debate.. To throw some more notible teams into the picture...

27- Tons of awards and Wins, along with Regional Chairmans, and WFA

33- Multiple regional wins and Chairmans, and many engineering awards

217-The second team to get two world championships, WFA, Regional Chairmans, Mutiple Regional wins.. When you hear, "Thunderstruck", you know the chickens are around!

469-Former World champs, Many regional wins, Tons of engineering awards

*67 is still my pick for michigan, but it worth to look at these 4 other teams along with 47/65=51

[sgreco]

Originally Posted by cziggy343

NV: 39

39 is from Arizona. I would pick 987 from Nevada seeing as they are the only team from Nevada to take home a national title, and have numerous other qualifications as well.

[robochick1319]

I hate to sound like a kill-joy, but I find this whole discussion to be slightly pointless. There will never be a way any of us can agree on the order or rank of teams. Even if we develop ranking systems, there are discrapencies in the results. Furthermore, there are circumstances relating to awards and regionals that cannot be explained.

After 7 pages of posts, it seems clear that the "best teams" are usually chosen off of whims, biases, or general perceptions. What is worse, we seem to be comparing teams of different ages! A team that has won a lot in the past, but has been falling in glory over the past 5 years is often put above a team that has explosive and tremendous success in their short existence.

I wish I could see more discussion of current successes, rather than older reputations. As horrible as it might sound, we should be asking, "What have you done lately?"

[kjolana1124]

Originally Posted by EricH

I'll nominate 383 for Brazil; long record and pretty good.

After working with them in Hartford, I endorse that

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by robochick1319

I hate to sound like a kill-joy, but I find this whole discussion to be slightly pointless. There will never be a way any of us can agree on the order or rank of teams. Even if we develop ranking systems, there are discrapencies in the results. Furthermore, there are circumstances relating to awards and regionals that cannot be explained.

After 7 pages of posts, it seems clear that the "best teams" are usually chosen off of whims, biases, or general perceptions. What is worse, we seem to be comparing teams of different ages! A team that has won a lot in the past, but has been falling in glory over the past 5 years is often put above a team that has explosive and tremendous success in their short existence.

I wish I could see more discussion of current successes, rather than older reputations. As horrible as it might sound, we should be asking, "What have you done lately?"

Which is partly why this discussion is so interesting. Everyone has different criteria and reasoning. This leads to facts about teams that others did not know becoming more common knowledge.

(Plus, not to be a jerk but if you find a discussion pointless don't participate... (not that I am discouraging your posts or opinions, I actually agree with them for the most part))

[ttldomination]

Originally Posted by robochick1319

I hate to sound like a kill-joy, but I find this whole discussion to be slightly pointless. There will never be a way any of us can agree on the order or rank of teams. Even if we develop ranking systems, there are discrapencies in the results. Furthermore, there are circumstances relating to awards and regionals that cannot be explained.

After 7 pages of posts, it seems clear that the "best teams" are usually chosen off of whims, biases, or general perceptions. What is worse, we seem to be comparing teams of different ages! A team that has won a lot in the past, but has been falling in glory over the past 5 years is often put above a team that has explosive and tremendous success in their short existence.

I wish I could see more discussion of current successes, rather than older reputations. As horrible as it might sound, we should be asking, "What have you done lately?"

What I find funny is that we'll go on for a while about a team in a specific state, and then a member from that team will post about how their team isn't actually the best.

Of course we'll never actually agree. But that's the point of discussions. That you enjoy talking about things and maybe butting heads with someone. That's what all of the "What's next year's game going to be" and "Who will win worlds" threads are. Just speculations based on biases and likes.

- Sunny

[robochick1319]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Which is partly why this discussion is so interesting. Everyone has different criteria and reasoning. This leads to facts about teams that others did not know becoming more common knowledge.

(Plus, not to be a jerk but if you find a discussion pointless don't participate... (not that I am discouraging your posts or opinions, I actually agree with them for the most part))

It is somewhat funny that when a person says "not to be a jerk", they usually follow with a somewhat rude comment. But I do understand what you mean. I didn't mean to suggest that the whole discussion was pointless (and I apologize if it came off that way). I was merely suggesting that the quality of the discussion could be better. For instance, people could provide concrete examples or legitimate statistics to show their opinions as opposed to simple speculation.

[pakratt1991]

Originally Posted by Ian H.

Based on your logic, 753, who has won the regional 3 times should also be up there. I'd argue though that if you went by regional win logic you would probably have to nominate 753's drive train since that is really what helped them and later 997 once they got their hands on the designs of the drive train, to win.

That drive train has come a LONG way since we "got our hands" on it. It's shed pounds, lost size, and become much more simple... It's the same concept with some of the same geometry but at this point it's been almost fully redesigned since 753 had it. Not to mention that 6 teams used that drive train this year, if it was just the drive train that won regionals then I should have expected to see more of them win.

I do personally believe that there is much more to being the "best team" than winning regionals, while I'm bias I will be the first to admit that 1540 has come an amazing distance in 6 years. They have competed in the top tier every year since their inception, held off season learning events for local teams, mentored lego teams.... and the list goes on. They would be my pick for best team in Oregon.

[Lee Reid 3136]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

While 1086 has certainly been very very good since ~2006 (especially since 2007 onwards with the collaboration with 384 until this year), if we consider the history of the state, it gets a lot more interesting. I'm surprised nobody has brought up 122. The NASA Knights are one of the most storied teams in Virginia, and while they haven't quite been on the same standard the past few years and they were earlier in their history, they're still an excellent team.

An excellent point. I hadn't even thought of 122 mainly because I'm a rookie, i haven't been around that much and they didn't really strike me as that good of a team the little I saw them this year.

Another good team in Virginia could be 422. They made it to the finals in the New Jersey Regional and the semis in the Virginia regional, though I don't know how well they've done in years past.