Inspirational teams

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Billfred

1902. I have yet to see anyone who hates Exploding Bacon. From the days of Wendy Austin's living room and Dan Richardson's garage a couple doors down, they've developed a hell of a program that's held up over time and through leadership changes. If someone told me a program I started could only ever be as good as Bacon's, I wouldn't take it as an insult.

Any team that started with a random word generator can't be bad.

[Liam Fay]

For me, the most inspirational team has to go to 987. I challenge anyone to find one aspect of their program that isn't a model for others to follow.

[HelloRobot]

3824 is a great team in Knoxville. In addition to always performing well with an intuitively-designed robot, they're always willing to lend a helping hand to local teams. I don't know what my team, 5571, would do without them. They've given us so much guidance (and spare parts) since we became a team, and it's always great to work with them. In addition, they're always doing some kind of outreach, from home to Germany (seriously!).

I also have to send a shoutout to 3966, the L&N STEMpunks, for their awesome business division. They won the Media and Technology award from Comcast for their excellent online branding, and their robust organization system makes them more productive on the business side than most other teams I've seen.

[Richard Wallace]

So many FRC teams have inspired me that I will not try to list them all. But two are firmly stuck in my mind: 16 and 71.

I saw both for the first time in Orlando in 1996, my rookie year. (Teams did not have numbers then, and my Arch Rivals from St. Louis are long forgotten; however, 1996 was also the rookie season for both the Baxter Bomb Squad and the Beatty BEAST.)

The Bomb Squad has continued to inspire me in several ways: world class community outreach, growing FIRST in their state, founding a regional, traveling far from home to conduct seminars for developing teams, and a group of mentors and alumni that are sustaining pillars of FIRST. And, oh yeah, they play hard.

71 has inspired me with their work ethic and competitiveness, their RAS in 1996, their first RCA in 2006 (and those 4 world championships in between), and their resurgence in more recent seasons. I posted at the time about watching them work in 2006, and that lesson inspired the way that I have tried to develop the Average Joes since moving to Michigan.

It was really cool seeing both of these teams at IRI this year.

[Fanny Z]

I think for me, the teams that really inspire me to this day are 1114, 254, 3683, 987, and 971.
1114 just never stops helping out other teams in need and has always shown me that you can always keep improving and building on what you already have.
When I first got to see 254 in 2014, I was ecstatic. It wasn't just the robot that really got me going but also the team especially when I began learning more and more about them. Although I had already been on a FIRST team for two years at the time, I felt like this team was what personally motivated me and inspired me to change.
3683, although not as old as the other teams I have listed is another that has inspired me and taught me to not only think but to always be doing something.
987 really inspires me and motivates me to really push for outreach and STEM in the community and with people I meet who ask me everyday why I'm always wearing a FIRST shirt.
971 is another team that inspires me with the robots they bring out every year.

[ns3517]

For me personally in no specific order some teams would be

118, 1678, 254, 1114, 2056, 2826, and 978

[ThaddeusMaximus]

Teams whose process and engineering I love in general:
- 1114 (Simplicity wins)
- 2056 (Again, simple bots, consistent powerhouse victories...)
- 254 (Pure powerhouse capabilities)


Teams that make/made really great and creative things:
- 118 (All the little details and neat ways of doing things. Also chainzilla drivetrain.)
- 16 (dat tanky swerve)
- 2451 (swerves, hubless DT)
- 971 (motion profiling)
- 1717 (again, dat swerve. also shot accuracy in 2012)

[SeeleySWS]

My first ever event I got to see 67 (The HOT Team). I didn't know they were a world champion at the time but I knew they were something special. To this day I have rooted for them.

Another great team that I love would 217 (ThunderChickens). They have always been helpful and an all around great team.

[Jonny_Jee]

There are many teams that have inspired me over the years.

Team 701 has been a HUGE inspiration of mine since my freshman year. They consistently produce top notch robots with elegant design features; have a wonderful team camaraderie that extends to people outside their team; and have inspired countless students from their communities, to China, to pursue higher educations in STEM.

Team 1678 has a similar story. They always provide a helping hand to local teams, putting on many dozens of workshops and events (VEX, FRC & FLL). Citrus Circuits have helped local teams attain success not thought possible, and my team was certainly no exception. I've spent a lot of time with their students and mentors, and their teams success is a reflection of their students and mentors work ethic and attitude. A truly world class team.

Team 1671 is another phenomenal team that immediately comes to mind. Those students work HARD and make amazing bots. I've visited their shop at all times of year and they are always busting butt! The Bird Brains always maintain a high standard of achievement and gracious professionalism.

There are many other exceptional teams that have inspired me over the years worth mentioning:
2073, 3250, 100, 3189, 692, 971 and 254 to name a few.

Thank you all for all you do for the FIRST community here in Cali!

[Ginger Power]

As others have mentioned team 2052 KnightKrawler is one of the top teams on my list of inspirational teams. At the beginning of build season I always ask myself how can my team compete with KnightKrawler. I hope that my team can eventually get to Champs with enough consistency that I can start asking myself how I'm going to beat the 1114's, 1678's, and 254's of the world, but at least for now they'll have to inspire me from afar.

On the Chairman's side of things I'm most inspired by 1816 and by the program they've established. I consider them to be the team to beat at any competition they attend. I'm pulling for them every year to get into the Hall of Fame.

Another team that inspires me to a great degree is GOFIRST at the University of Minnesota. Obviously not an FRC team, but they are a team of college students comprised primarily of FRC alumni. They've inspired me in many ways, and definitely changed my path at college.

[Akash Rastogi]

1323 for me. I've been able to see RC transform that team from 2007 onwards and they continue to impress me with how "unique" they are. Still one of my favorite teams in FRC.

[Anthony Galea]

For myself, I would say teams 67 and 469, specifically in 2010. I attended the 2010 Detroit district, and 67 was the first team I ever saw in action, and I was just amazed by their robot. Then, I attended the Michigan State Championship with team 3175 because they qualified, and they told me to watch out for 469 cause they had a crazy robot. They were right, and I made sure to watch every match possible that 469 was in because I thought they were so cool. 3175 didn't qualify for Atlanta that year, but I was cheering from home to see the two teams make it to the Einstein finals, and having seen them in person, it really got me excited to join the team in 2013.

[Ben Martin]

25, 341, 1218, and 2590 were local sources of inspiration for us as we grew our program. Especially 341 -- Daisy's 2012 robot is referenced in some way every year as we design the current year's robot

[Kevin Leonard]

Team 67's 2012 robot is the robot that inspired me to step up my game. It was such an elegant machine, with no feature that felt unnecessary or wasted.
And really those are the robots that inspire me the most. The robots where every actuation and movement has a purpose, and the robot is as simple as possible to do what the team wants it to do.
1678 is another great example. Their robots the past four years have been so intelligently designed.
225 is an excellent example as well, and anyone who has seen their 2013 robot knows that they didn't start off with crazy resources.

[Brian Maher]

Originally Posted by Ben Martin

25, 341, 1218, and 2590 were local sources of inspiration for us as we grew our program. Especially 341 -- Daisy's 2012 robot is referenced in some way every year as we design the current year's robot

I agree with all of these, but especially 341 and 2590.

My first competition was the 2012 Springside-Chestnut Hill District Event, where 341 was in attendance. For anyone unfamiliar with Miss Daisy in 2012, they attended two district events, the Boston regional, MAR Champs, and Curie. They seeded first at all of them and went undefeated in elimination matches until Curie Finals. Their fast, crazy-accurate bot was one of the first FRC robots I had ever seen. It that made me think, "wow, someday I want to help make something that amazing." Five seasons later, they were also pretty great to be on an alliance with. In addition to building cool robots, 341 is one of the nicest teams out there.

My first especially memorable encounter with 2590 was at the 2014 MAR Championship. By some miracle, after winning our first event as the second-to-last pick (after only being picked once in all our previous years) and going unpicked at our second, we managed to seed second. We had no prior scouting experience because we were never in a position to pick (a bad reason not to scout, since scouting data helps win quals, but that's beside the point), so we made a hectic attempt to scout and prepare for alliance selection. In quarterfinals, the #7 alliance of 2590, 11, and 341 beat us in two and went on to win the event. I was amazed that they were able to put together such a powerful alliance from the #7 spot. It showed me the awesome power of scouting and inspired me to spearhead new scouting ventures on 1257. Before MAR Champs 2014, I was far from the most motivated member of 1257, but with scouting and strategy I had finally found my niche.

I'd also like to mention a few other amazing teams from MAR.

1626 has helped us so much over the years, both at competitions and build/off-season mentorship. They were the first to really believe in us. Their assistance in fixing our robot was the reason we had a operational, competition-legal robot at the 2011 NYC Regional after our students had misunderstood some key robot rules. The next year, 1257's lead mentor retired after the 2011 season and our wonderful current lead mentor stepped up to the role with only one year of FRC experience (one of two returning mentors). They provided us with much-needed direction and guidance that we didn't really have with our lack of experience. Fast-forward to 2014: they were the second team to ever pick us, inviting us join their alliance at a district event, which we won. It was a really inspiring event for many on the team, myself included, who had never experienced any success at competition beyond one quarterfinals appearance. They are not only a major reason 1257 still exists but also big lesson to us about what coopertition (as cheesy as it may sound sometimes) is really about: helping others so we can all take away more from this wonderful program.

225 is certainly on my list. What inspires me most about TechFire is their impressive rise to success and how much their history resembles 1257, but shifted a few years earlier. The team disbanded and re-formed a few years later under new leadership, and after a few rough years, gradually upped their game from going unpicked at both events in 2011 to winning a few events and consistently making elims/captaining alliances (around where 1257 is now) to triple-banner seasons in 2015 and 2016. They've taken to building some of my favorite robots to watch in action. Their 2016 robot includes a sophisticated auto-aiming arm and their 2015 bot grabs totes two-at-a-time from the landfill and builds stacks by piling them up on the scoring platform. They're also a pleasure to be on an alliance with, as they're quite a nice team.