I first want to congratulate all the teams that competed at MSC this past weekend, it was by far the most exciting event of the season. A special shout out to teams 6090-Wayland Wildcats, 1506-Metal Muscle and 217-Thunderchickens on being our new state champions.
2023 FIM Awards
This will be my last post of the season, as the Michigan season has ended and I am not qualified to give accurate predictions and previews for anything outside of Michigan, nonetheless Worlds. I wish Michigan teams best of luck at the World Championship and hope all 4 winning teams are from Michigan…or at least 1. I do have plans for some offseason posts, like building a FIM Hall of Fame and ranking all the previous games, but back to the matter at hand, I have some end of season awards to give out. I can think of no better way to end the season than give recognition to Michigan Teams that impressed me. For each award category I will tell you the criteria for that award, and ultimately who the winner is. So let’s start with our rookie awards.
All-FIM Rookie Teams
Inspired by the NBA’s all rookie teams, I have put together two teams (of 3) composed of the best rookies of this year. Keep in mind my definition differs from the FIRST definition, as I will be considering all teams that had their first year be 2023, not necessarily teams with numbers in the 9000’s .The first team will be the best 3 rookies, and the second team will be the next 3, in no particular order but listed numerically.
All-FIM Rookie 1st Team:
4422-Twisted Angels
9176-Greenspire Steel Sturgeons
9312-NERD Spark
All-FIM Rookie 2nd Team:
9182-Tech Tr1be
9208-Eddies Circuit
9255-Botmasterz
Rookie of the Year
Now with these top rookies established, I think it is time to announce the Rookie of the Year. The best rookie team for the 2023 season.
Rookie of the Year Winner:
9312-NERD Spark
All-FIM Teams
Similar to the All-FIM Rookie Teams, these are inspired by the All-NBA Teams, that give recognition to the best 5 players in Basketball, or in our case 3 robots per listed team, with a total of 3 teams being listed. These are the best 9 robots total separated into 3 groups of 3.
All-FIM 1st Team:
2075-Enigma Robotics
2767-Stryke Force
3538-RoboJackets
All-FIM 2nd Team:
33-Killer Bees
2337-EngiNerds
4381-Twisted Devils
All-FIM 3rd Team:
51-Wings of Fire
3175-Knight Vision
3357-COMETS
Most Valuable Robot
Now that the top teams have been established, I will now crown one robot as the best Michigan Robot for 2023.
Most Valuable Robot Winner:
3538-RoboJackets
Team Inspiration Award
This is the team that I had the best experience with off the field and in the pits, that other teams can look at, as a shining example of a great FRC team. Despite this team not even being in my team’s division at states, they still stopped to check out our robot and talk to us; and when I later stopped by their pit, it was nothing but generosity and fellow love for the sport.
Team Inspiration Award Winner:
5712-Hemlock’s Grey Matter
Underrated Award
This is given to the team that I felt was most underrated at MSC and fell just short of making the playoffs. This could have been them being a part of a loaded division, where they would have made it in another, or a team that I felt really could have shined had they been selected.
Underrated Award Winner:
7790-Baywatch Robotics
Elegant Engineering Award
This award goes to the team who’s robot that I thought looked the best visually. This includes at the start of the season, as well as visuals after weeks of rigorous competition. This team’s look reminded me of a team that no longer exists, 3547 Virus. I always liked their robot looks, so I was saddened to learn that they no longer exist.
Elegant Engineering Award Winner:
2832-The Livonia Warriors
Continuous Improvement Award
This award goes to the team that not only made improvements to their robot during the course of the season, but also made “leaps” in terms of performance between their first event and subsequent events.
Continuous Improvement Award Winner:
503-Frog Force
Comeback Team of the Year
This Title goes to the team that had a bit of a slump in 2022 but came back in 2023 for a great season, fitting of their standards.
Comeback Team of the Year:
548-Robostangs
Breakout Team of the Year
This Title goes to the team that made a statement in 2023. The team that I believe will continue putting out a high-tier robot design year after year, and that this was only the beginning of a stellar run. They may have seen varying levels of success, with one blue banner and a Finalist early in their history, but this year they took it to a whole new level, becoming Finalists 3 times this year and for the first time qualifying for Worlds.
Breakout Team of the Year:
6002-ZooBotix
Twisted Devils Award
This award goes to the team that throughout the season I doubted again and again, but also proved me wrong, again and again. Thus this award is named after the team that started this trend, and will continue to be named after them, as it passes from team to team and as long as I decide to continue doing this.
Twisted Devils Award:
4381-Twisted Devils
There are two awards remaining and these two are the highest honors that I can give out, Team of the Year and Personal Favorite.
Team of the Year
The Title of Team of the Year 2023 goes to the team that I believe simply had the best team. This includes a great performing robot, a fantastic group of mentors and students whom I interacted with, and had a story that encapsulates how I will remember the 2023 FRC Season. They started with one of the most memorable first event choices I have ever seen, then lost their second event due to a teammates mechanical failure, but ultimately would make FIMstein as an underdog in a division that most people thought could only be won by a select few elite teams.
Team of the Year:
5166-The Fabricators
Favorite Robot Award
The best award for the 2023 season is of course, the Favorite Robot Award. This Award goes to the Team who had my Favorite Robot for the 2023 season. Visuals, function and everything put together made this team my favorite, disappointed they didn’t have much success at MSC, but they are still my favorite.
Favorite Robot Award Winner:
4327-Q Branch
Thus concludes my Awards, and my posts for the 2023 FRC Regular Season. I plan to do this next year, but that is a long way away. In the meantime I would like feedback on what you liked and didn’t like about my Previews, Recaps and Lists, so that I can make improvements to the format and make better content for next season. Like I said above, I do plan on doing some offseason posts, as I have already started on making a FIM Hall of Fame, but not sure when that will be posted/finished. Until next time, thank you for taking the time to read these and the community interaction has been really great. I am in the works of joining a new team for next season, but currently undecided/unconfirmed, so not sure when I will get the chance to go to another event, but I had a fun time in 2023 nonetheless.
