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

[AWoL]

First off, let me sincerely thank 1114 and 195 for picking us and 1405 for being awesome alliance partners at IRI. We loved working with all of you and it was an incredible experience for our team. In addition to that, it certainly felt like a milestone for our team. I've been around since 2014, when 225 wasn't quite on the level it is today, but nevertheless had pretty good results. However, last year we had seniors graduate who remembered our 2012 season, which is a night-and-day difference when compared to our performance in the last two years. I'm incredibly proud of how far we've come and I'm thankful that I've been able to contribute to 225's growing success.

As such, I love digging around the Blue Alliance team histories that show interesting changes in performance and finding out about what caused those changes. What teams do you think have improved the most in the shortest amount of time, and, if you know, what were the driving factors?

[thatprogrammer]

2056 went from not existing (2006) to picking 1114 as the #1 seed at the Toronto regional (2007). This is probably because they went from not being a team to being a team (Note, 2056 actually did a bunch of great practices in their rookie year that I spoke to them about. PM me or *even better* someone on 2056 so you can find out about them).

971 wasn't *that* good before 2009 and really wasn't at their current level until 2012. They went from seeding decently at tough regionals to seeding very well at events like the modern SVR (and I don't know anyone who would deny that 971 is a team that was good enough to win world's in 2014 or this year but had some bad luck at world's). I spoke to Wyn Schuh at World's quite a bit this year and she said that their success really just started because of experience and learning what works and what doesn't work. Lots of their former students and members still support their team as mentors and use their years of experience to guide the team and keep it very focused.

[jajabinx124]

Originally Posted by AWoL

First off, let me sincerely thank 1114 and 195 for picking us and 1405 for being awesome alliance partners at IRI. We loved working with all of you and it was an incredible experience for our team. In addition to that, it certainly felt like a milestone for our team. I've been around since 2014, when 225 wasn't quite on the level it is today, but nevertheless had pretty good results. However, last year we had seniors graduate who remembered our 2012 season, which is a night-and-day difference when compared to our performance in the last two years. I'm incredibly proud of how far we've come and I'm thankful that I've been able to contribute to 225's growing success.

As such, I love digging around the Blue Alliance team histories that show interesting changes in performance and finding out about what caused those changes. What teams do you think have improved the most in the shortest amount of time, and, if you know, what were the driving factors?

In Minnesota I've seen 3130 the errors improve in a short period of time. Their 2015 season was their breakout year winning 2 regionals, semi-finalist at champs, and winning the MN state championship. 2016 was also great for them as they won another regional and were semi-finalists at champs again. 3130 slowly jumped from just another team in MN to a powerhouse in FRC IMO.

Team 2122 the tators I feel like have also improved. They've been gunning at hitting Einstein for a long time and I feel like they finally took that step into the elite team they are. Ever since I saw them in 2014 in Galileo, I know they've been a good team. They definitely had a stellar stacking machine 2015 and of course in 2016 they jumped to that next level with their stellar performance in Carson.

2481 the robo-teers have also been improving. Ever since I saw their reveal video in 2014 I knew they were one of the upcoming teams that make their stance in the big stage. From making their first appearance on Einstein in 2014 to winning it all in 2016, these guys have been improving year after year.

There are so many teams to choose from, but these are the ones that appear first on my mind.

[jajabinx124]

*facepalm*

How in the world could I forget 5172!!! Even thought they started with a stellar year their rookie year and have been maintaining that performance they took the next step this year with winning their first regional and making their team name loud within FRC. I was surprised they didn't get on Einstein- even in Newton the most stacked division. They have improved a ton since 2014 and if they keep improving at this pace, I won't be surprised if they'll put their name up with the big named teams year after year. Too bad 2 champs is next year.. I wish I could be saying 5172 could eventually win it all in the future.. :/ Oh well they'll have to settle with winning North Champs sometime..

[hutchMN]

Originally Posted by jajabinx124

*facepalm*

How in the world could I forget 5172!!! Even thought they started with a stellar year their rookie year and have been maintaining that performance they took the next step this year with winning their first regional and making their team name loud within FRC. I was surprised they didn't get on Einstein- even in Newton the most stacked division. They have improved a ton since 2014 and if they keep improving at this pace, I won't be surprised if they'll put their name up with the big named teams year after year. Too bad 2 champs is next year.. I wish I could be saying 5172 could eventually win it all in the future.. :/ Oh well they'll have to settle with winning North Champs sometime..

5172 has been good since day one. I can't believe they don't have more than 1 regional win.

[hutchMN]

I hate talking about my former team, but 2502 went from being a bottom half MN team to being a top 5 MN team ever since our 2013 season. We took another huge leap during the 2015 season when my friends and I kinda had a coup of the leadership about halfway through the competition season. That really changed the focus on 2502 to being the best possible team we can be.

[bkahl]

195 barely fielded a robot in 2010.

The team came back in 2011 under new leadership and in a different structure to win 2 regionals and be competitive at Worlds.

195 has won at least one event in every season since.

[smitikshah]

Sam posted our team history above, but going back to OP I just wanted to highlight some things that helped us change:

1.) Biggest thing was restructuring the team. As opposed to leads in each area with one mentor to help them all which resulted in loss of communication between the subteams, we decided on one captain and one co-captain + secretary/treasury positions to facilitate school related paper work (they consulted the two mentors). The captain and co-captain communicate with the subteams (via the subteam leads)- about progress. With a small team we found the previously mentioned system doesn't work that well, and personally for our team the latter seems to be a really good fit so far.

2.) Sponsors - By showing the school that we were able to get out there and promote ourselves, the school took a bit of favoring to us.

3.) Doing well in the offseason competition - the school started really believing in us and providing us with lots more money. This also boosted our spirits after several years of not doing so well.

4.) Dedicated members - In my view, the 2015-2016 year has seen dedication like never before. Team members would travel great distances to use practice fields, and meet other teams. A lot of people got really involved, as opposed to previously how 5 or 6 people would just come in the lab and sit there.

5.) Team Communications - We use Slack and Trello for team organization and messaging and it has facilitated so much in regards to getting in contact with people and delivering a "To-Do" list. This also has helped us learn to be more direct in communicating with one another, and helped foster a closer bond than E-mail threads have.

6.) Getting a start on early - Having ran out of time last year - we started off with a bang this year. In the first few days (2-3 days) we were doing late night video calls, and CADing ideas, memorizing the manual, etc. We were able to order items right away as a result. This helped us finish early with lots of time for revisions.

This list is in no particular order, except the first one (which I think was the most important thing). Kind of me just rambling. Hope this helps any teams that didn't do as well as they would have liked to this year.

[beurwonderwall]

3620 is the one that came to mind as I read this post. In 2013, they didn't even make it to MSC, but in 2014, they exploded. They won their home district, they went to Worlds, and became a powerhouse in community outreach. They're literally amazing and I give props to them. I see the Chairmans Award in their future, and I'm blessed to get to work with them on a regular basis.

If you get the time to speak to any of the students or mentors, do it. They're all such amazing folks, and they have amazing stories.

This year I was the drive coach for 2959 and the biggest support I got was from 3620's mentor, Doug. As someone who's been on the floor, he offered me advice, support, and guidance. I didn't approach him, he approached me. They're an AMAZING team.

[GKrotkov]

This won't exactly be news to the OP, but I'd like to throw 1257's hat into the ring for all those who don't know.

2016 Season:
- Captained the winning Mt. Olive District alliance.
- #1 seed and Finalist at Bridgewater-Raritan District
- Won MAR Champs.
- Archimedes Semifinalists (5 points from finalists)
- Qualified for IRI

2015 Season:
- Captain, quarterfinalist at Mt. Olive
- 2nd pick, finalist at North Brunswick
- Unselected at MAR Champs

Of course, this doesn't tell the whole story*: they had an interesting 2014 season, with the #2 seed at MARCMP and a win as a 2nd pick at Clifton. But for reference, they went unselected entirely in the 2013 season. I still argue that 1257's rise has been meteoric.

*Well, heck, seeing as I'm not on 1257 I can't tell the entire story.

[ASD20]

Originally Posted by thatprogrammer

2056 went from not existing (2006) to picking 1114 as the #1 seed at the Toronto regional (2007). This is probably because they went from not being a team to being a team (Note, 2056 actually did a bunch of great practices in their rookie year that I spoke to them about. PM me or *even better* someone on 2056 so you can find out about them).

I think 2056 deserves an award for least improved team of all time, simply because they can't possibly do better.

Originally Posted by Jay O'Donnell

Admittedly this is completely biased as it is my old team, but I think 1058 fits this pretty well despite not being that well known. Plus I love talking about the team's history so this should be fun.

I agree. 1058 has had a great few years and this year was just incredible.

Originally Posted by smitikshah

Sam posted our team history above, but going back to OP I just wanted to highlight some things that helped us change:

1.) Biggest thing was restructuring the team. As opposed to leads in each area with one mentor to help them all which resulted in loss of communication between the subteams, we decided on one captain and one co-captain + secretary/treasury positions to facilitate school related paper work (they consulted the two mentors). The captain and co-captain communicate with the subteams (via the subteam leads)- about progress. With a small team we found the previously mentioned system doesn't work that well, and personally for our team the latter seems to be a really good fit so far.

2.) Sponsors - By showing the school that we were able to get out there and promote ourselves, the school took a bit of favoring to us.

I'm extremely biased, but I think my former team's (4761's), business team has had one of the largest transformations in a short time. 2013 and 2014 we had no real business team and a relatively small budget. From 2014 to 2015, we tripled our budget and won the entrepreneurship award twice. From 2015 to 2016 we nearly doubled our budget again (though a lot of it was from going to CMPs) and we won a District Chairman's award and DCMP Chairman's award and our business team was able to do all of this with only 3-4 people.

[Chirag]

Originally Posted by ASD20

I'm extremely biased, but I think my former team's (4761's), business team has had one of the largest transformations in a short time. 2013 and 2014 we had no real business team and a relatively small budget. From 2014 to 2015, we tripled our budget and won the entrepreneurship award twice. From 2015 to 2016 we nearly doubled our budget again (though a lot of it was from going to CMPs) and we won a District Chairman's award and DCMP Chairman's award and our business team was able to do all of this with only 3-4 people.

(Also biased) but 4761's robot quality also improved a lot in a year. I left for college for a few months and came back to a robot that looked wayyy better than anything our team had ever built before.

[evanperryg]

I don't think there's any question 1678 gets the "most improved" award over the last 6 years or so.

If we're looking at the last 4 years, I would nominate 2338 and 2481. 2338 has gone from picking up our first and only regional win as the 23rd overall pick, to a 3-year Midwest finalist streak (as alliance captain or first pick every time), 3 champs appearances (out of 5 in our history), back-to-back Chairman's awards, an Einstein appearance, and 3 IRI appearances. I'd argue that 2481 didn't start out as low as we did, but they've put out world-class robots for three years now. They were always above average, but now they're WAY above average. 2481 is the most underrated team in the world.

If we're looking at just this last season, I'd argue that team 3695, Foximus Prime, blew everyone out of the water. They went from being a team that struggled to field a robot, to having a gorgeous catapult shooter capable of 3-5 midfield shots per match, plus a vision-assisted high goal auto. They somehow didn't get picked at Midwest this year, to the detriment of the many alliances who could have benefited massively from their presence on the field.

[Nathan Streeter]

This thread is an interesting one to me, as I like "the numbers" and love seeing or hearing the story behind the numbers... I hope to see it growing!

Really, every good team - whether just "regionally strong" or "internationally elite" - became who they are at some point. For some teams they started out really good or exceptionally good from the beginning (2056 and 1902 come to mind), for other teams they've been so good for so long that we can hardly remember when they weren't exceptional (33, particularly?), and for still other teams their ascent to fame has been gradual and incremental.

One team that I'd like to suggest is mentioned here may not make sense to a lot of people (and hasn't had the biggest improvement in the shortest amount of time), is 118. They've been building marvels of engineering since I've been involved in FIRST (2005)... it wasn't until - I think - 2011 that they really started performing on-field at the level that they'd seemingly been building robots at for years. Now, it'd be shocking if they didn't win a handful of blue banners and make it deep in elims at CMP! (although this year they got stuck with some lousy team from New Hampshire at Champs to hold them back from glory... * sigh *) At any rate, I think their most representative pre-2011 season was 2008. Their 2008 robot had a swerve drive, with an excellent catapult to make quick shots (those balls weighed 8-10lbs, btw), they had a pickup that looked like 217's successful design, and to top it all off, their whole upper assembly could rotate (yes, on top of their swerve drive). Phenomenal. Watch their reveal video, released at the beginning of week 4 in the build season! Surely they were in the finals on Einstein losing to the tremendous 1114-217-148 alliance? No, they did alright, but didn't win a blue banner that year and never topped an elim score of 90 points. Their other robots of that era were similar. In 2011 (and onwards) they've still developed phenomenal robots (although now the reveal videos are of the powder-coated robots around bag day), but they've won blue banners left, right, and center and have added several Einstein appearances. Perhaps someone from 118 would like to weigh in to either dismiss this "trend" or to explain it with some back story?

148 actually falls into a bit of a similar category, in that they really weren't over-powering until 2008 (and perhaps some would argue 2009), and have since been at the absolute top-notch, world-class level.

195 is really a great example. They had real success earlier in team history (an Einstein appearance in 2006, for instance), but 2008-2010 were real down years... 0 awards after 2007 UTC regional until the 2011 WPI regional!! 2011 through 2013 they built momentum back up with very strong robots. From 2014 to now, there definitely has not been a stronger team in New England. This year I think 195 really entered the conversation of that truly elite tier (top 5-10 in world).

My own team, 1519, I think is also a good example. We had some success in our early years (mostly just 2006 and 2008), but in 2010 we really clicked and have been strong at the regional level since then (2 banners 2005-2009, 14 banners 2010-2016). Unfortunately it seems our luck always runs out at the Championship level... we've only made it past the quarterfinals in 2012 and 2013 (and 2013 was as the third pick of 33 and 469... it would've been hard to mess that up!). Even then, our shot accuracy was degrading on Einstein, and we didn't design the shooter to be adequately serviceable to replace the shooter wheel and our design really didn't fit any role other than FCS particularly well.

Some other, more recent rises in New England include: 133, 166, 319, and 4564.

133 has been a quality team with success off the field in 2007-2014, but they had very little on-field success in that period. 2014 was improved, 2015 brought a District Win and District Finalist, and now 2016 brought a tremendous amount of success. They had a high OPR at their first district, won their second, made it all the way to the finals at NE CMP as the #1 pick, but lost to an offensive juggernaut in 195-125-2168 in the finals. At the CMP they fought off several issues to make it all the way to their divisional finals, where they almost prevented the eventual world champions from even making it to Einstein!

166 had a very sharp improvement this year - which I expect them to build on. They've also been a quality team off the field for many years and have hosted Mayhem in Merrimack since 2005 or 2006. In 2015, I thought their robot performance had improved and they qualified for DCMP, but in 2016 they really took off, becoming one of the best shooters in all of New England and going as the #1 pick on Curie with the division's highest OPR.

319 had also been very quiet for a lot the team's history. Some years were better than others, but they'd never won a banner until this year. In 2015 they showed very big improvement on-field and had a very cool 3-tote (plus 2 can? 1 can?) auto. It took them until the off-season to really get it clicking, but they set the stage for this year, when the fielded a very capable, versatile robot that won two district events.

4564 didn't have the long period to set the stage that these other teams did... Instead, in their first two years there were all the signs of a future district-winning team. They won Rookie All-Star in 2013, then in 2014 fielded a stronger robot, pieced together some reasonable alliances (but didn't make it to the finals) and earned a spot at the DCMP. In 2015 they won a district event and finished as a finalist at the other. They made a good showing at DCMP but suffered an early QF exit. In 2016 they didn't end up with a blue banner, but they did field a very strong high goal shooter and innovative climber with which they seeded first at the NE DCMP with 45 RP! They made it all the way to the finals, but lost in three matches (with 133 and 238) to the alliance of 195-125-2168.

I'm interested to hear of more teams and to hear stories from some of these teams!

[robotlover2016]

4818 may not have nearly as much improvement as the teams already mentioned, but this season they went from ranking 58th at the Lake Superior Regional to ranking 5th at the Iowa Regional and being semifinalist.

2175 had a similar story as they were ranked 40th at the Iowa Regional, but then were the #1 seed at the North Star Regional and went on to win the competition.

Both these teams showed an impressive amount of improvement in a single season.