paper: 2015 FRC Championship History

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Bennett548

I understand the reasoning behind the diminishing effect, I was just curious about the value chosen. With the current number ~80% of a team's ranking comes from the most recent 4 years.

I don't think there is a number everyone can agree upon. I would use a bigger weight that 66%, so that older years have more weight. It seems to me that mentors and sponsors are a big part of a teams success, and that they have a slower turnover rate.

Also, not all teams are four years. There are many 3 year high schools, and schools with FTC teams as well. As I recall from The New Cool, 1717 members only compete one year. Others, such as the Girls of Steel, have an 8th grade apprentice program and are essentially a five+ year program. Probably most teams which mentor a "farm system" of FLL/FTC would tend to have more than a four year decorrelation time. All that said, -33% per year sounds reasonable to me.