Welcome to our week one Chairman’s Preview! We’ll be looking at every regional and district championship each week, giving you a look at who is likely to be in contention for FIRST’s greatest award, the Chairman’s Award. This week’s preview was in collaboration with Liam Fay-- we’re always looking for tips and information, so if you’ve got a scoop feel free to PM or email us!
Right off the bat, the South Florida Regional is looking to be full of strong Chairman’s contenders. Team 233 is the only team here to have won a Regional or District Championship-level Chairman’s award in 2016, and could see another RCA in their future thanks to the work they’ve put into starting over 60 FIRST teams. Teams 79 and 694 are both old school Chairman’s favorites who haven’t taken home any Chairman’s banners since 2012, but could be looking to kick off new streaks. Finally, Team 4481 is looking could upgrade the EI awards they won in 2014 and 2015.
Four teams stand out in contention for the Chairman’s award at the Lake Superior Regional. 1714 has the most history with the award of the bunch, with 5 RCA’s and 5 EIs under their belt. 1816 is also no rookie to presenting, with RCA’s in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2015. But neither of those two teams took home any Chairman’s hardware last year-- they’ll be facing some serious contention from 2052 and 2526, who both won an RCA in 2016.
The Northern Lights Regional will be an interesting one-- there’s some serious competition coming from out of state in the form of 525 who took home an RCA at Iowa last year, as well as back in 2013. They might be the favorite for their strong international outreach, but 4607 also took home an RCA in 2016 and is certainly looking for a repeat with a strong local program. It might have been a couple of years, but hometown team 2512 will also be looking to take home a banner after their 2015 win here. On the outside, we also have 2502 who won a couple of Engineering Inspiration awards in 2016, and will be looking to upgrade. This regional also has HOF team 27 visiting, who won it here prior to their 2014 CCA win.
Among the teams competing at the Toluca Regional, only one team took home a Chairman’s banner in the 2016 season: 3478. But 3478 still has lots of competition; 4010 has a good shot at upgrading their 2014-2016 EI streak to a banner, and both 3158 and 3354 are hoping to revive the RCA success they had in 2014. Finally, 2283 is looking to add a third RCA to their collection after wins in 2011 and 2015.
The Palmetto Regional has a variety of teams that could take home the Chairman’s Award-- in particular, the leader of the pack looks to be 2614, who took home the Palmetto RCA last year, and is looking to continue a streak going back to 2014. They aren’t the only ones with a shot, though-- 3008 will be making the long journey from Hawaii and has took home an RCA in 2015, when they visited Australia. This team also has a couple of CCA winning teams visiting that teams would be wise to learn from-- 120, the 1999 winners, and 359, who took home the big one in 2011.
There’s one team that’s just a cut above the rest if you look at the teams competing for Chairman’s at Hub City Regional, and that team is 2468, who has a streak going back to 2013, with the majority of those wins being in Lubbock. They’ll have a bit of competition from 4499, who will be coming down from Colorado, where they’ve won back to back RCAs, as well as 2341, who took home the RCA from Oklahoma last year. We’ll also see some strong Texas competition from teams such as 1477, who took home an RCA last year and in 2014, as well as 624 and 3847, both of whom haven’t seen a Chairman’s banner since 2014, but will certainly be looking to add another to their collections.
We can’t wait to see who takes home the first Chairman’s Awards of 2017. If you feel like we’ve missed anyone or you have a correction to make, feel free to comment, and good luck with FIRST Steamworks!
