Back again with an updated heatmap of New York.
Last year’s thread can be found here.
The overall difference is the loss of Long Island 1 Regional while getting the return of the Hudson Valley Regional.
The team count is 143 from 141 last year.
9 team shut down
7 rookies started
4 teams returned
This puts NY at 2013 numbers but with 2 more regionals.
Something I noticed while collecting this data.
There are 3573 teams this year.
1875 in regionals
1698 in districts.
With a breakdown of roughly 52.5% regional, and 61 regionals means 244 spots are given out through regionals.
the district allotment of 47.5% 283 champion slots for districts.
Realistically if you have every regional 5 slots it would be 305 total slots.
I know this is likely to start a pie fight, but here it goes…
Why hasn’t New York formed a district? You have the density of teams, goodness knows, and the state isn’t so large that this is impractical. You’d likely get more opportunity for NY teams to earn Championship spots, you could have more events spread out across the state (making it easier for more rural teams) and still have a robust competition by bringing the top teams together for a DCMP, especially since many of your neighbors are already in districts (New England, Middle Atlantic) and unlikely to come to your regionals now that they can’t earn a Championship spot that way. The travel times from one side of the state to the other are about the same as what we have here in FNC district and we only have about half the number of teams you do and just five district events, but we still all get two events plus DCMP (assuming we qualify, which is true for about half the teams) each season. I know that it takes some dedicated people to form a district organization (our FNC folks are incredibly hard working and dedicated) but surely NY has people like that who could make it work and raise the needed funds. It just seems like you’d want to do that, given the advantages.
Ready to duck the pie…
From Modern Times starring Charlie Chaplin
There isn’t a statewide 501c3.
There are very few people who are willing to dedicate that much time to FRCFIRST Robotics Competition in NY. Which is entirely reasonable on a human level. It takes a lot of effort to do that.
There’s also a significant cultural and geographical divide between downstate and upstate teams. Despite me competing in NY for 8 years, I actually never played a single match with or against 1796 (until I graduated college, moved to New England, and happened to get a match with them at a NE offseason). It’s been very hard to create a shared, established communication channel between high-involvement volunteers across the state.
There are also not enough offseasons. There are some 3 or 4, most of which occur in a 2-3 week period at the end of the fall. Most teams are unable to do more than 1 without traveling to FMA or NE.
Lastly, a significant chunk of teams and volunteers in NY simply don’t want districts.
My understanding is that there’s a hurdle with regards to how New York’s events are run and FIRST’s policy about how districts can be formed. Currently, New York has multiple organizations putting on events, and FIRST won’t let a district happen if it isn’t the whole state. This is also what’s keeping them from joining MAR/NE, since it would be better for teams if different parts of the state could be aligned with those districts.
In 2013, many NY teams were attending NE events, so the additional two regionals is a positive.
What a darn shame NY hasn’t managed to do… Anything? In the last 10 years? 
There were so many promising young teams and even veteran teams that fizzled out in the last few years. It’s clear the current system in NY is unsustainable, and needs a big paradigm shift.
There are probably many reasons for this, some of which have already been said, but it boils down to the fact that there are many big, hard-to-solve obstacles, and no one wants to start figuring out how to fix them.
NYNY and (the returning for this year) NYSU are run by NYC FIRST
NYLI2 is run by LI FIRST
NYTR is run by Tech Valley FIRST
NYRO is run by Upstate NY FIRST
Edit: The above is incorrect, Upstate NY FIRST runs NYSU, NYTR, and NYRO.
Each organization also runs 1-2 off-season events every year, which are typically filled with teams that would also usually attend their local NY event.
The result of this is that while teams in NYC are very closely interconnected, and have developed a fairly strong FRCFIRST Robotics Competition community and collaboration between teams, we have effectively no connection with most of the teams in LI, let alone upstate. The only time my team can play with a team outside of the NYC/LI region is at offseasons, and even then any interaction we have is brief.
When asking about going to districts in NYCFIRST communications channels in the past, one of the main reasons I’ve gotten is that NYNY, NYSU, and NYLI2 are generally the only events that overseas teams can travel to on a year-to-year basis. NY going to a district model would prevent this, meaning that these teams (usually 5-10 per event per year) would have a much harder time finding other events to travel to.
While on paper NY had more than enough space for every team that wanted a second event to get it, the result was that, after the first round of alliance selection, 2/3 of the events that my team could travel to every year were full, and there were still teams (including 1796 IIRC) that had not even gotten an event. While things worked out in the end for all of the teams that I know were having trouble, I do worry for the future of NY events and if this will continue, especially if more regional events become off-limits as they transition to districts.
| 145 | T-Rx | CNY | 22 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 352 | The Green Machine | Long Island | 21 | Did Not Participate |
| 395 | 2 Train Robotics | NYC | 22 | Returned in 24 |
| 426 | Zombie Apocalypse Counter Task Force | NYC | 23 | |
| 640 | Edison Robotics | NYC | 20 | Returned in 23 |
| 884 | Mechanical Mules | Long Island | 23 | |
| 1450 | XQ Robotix | Rochester | 20 | Returned in 23 |
| 1551 | Grapes of wrath | Rochester | 23 | |
| 1537 | Robotic Knights | Long Island | 20 | |
| 1600 | ROBO KINGS AND QUEENS | NYC | 20 | |
| 1660 | Harlem Knights | NYC | 21 | Did Not Participate |
| 1665 | Weapons of Mass Construction | NYC | 21 | |
| 1751 | The Warriors | Long Island | 22 | |
| 1880 | Warriors of East Harlem | NYC | 20 | Returned in 23 |
| 2579 | LIC Robodogs | NYC | 20 | |
| 2716 | Ranger Force | Rochester | 21 | Ranger’s 2nd team |
| 3017 | Patriots | NYC | 23 | |
| 3053 | VB Stingers | NYC | 21 | Did Not Participate |
| 3157 | Iron Lancers | Rochester | 21 | |
| 4203 | RoboKronos | CNY | 20 | |
| 4263 | CyberDragon | NYC | 20 | |
| 4299 | BCS RoboSharks | NYC | 22 | Returned 24 |
| 4383 | The P-TECH Fly-Bots | NYC | 20 | |
| 4508 | Steel Stallions | Albany | 20 | |
| 4640 | Metallic Panthers | NYC | 20 | |
| 4773 | Steel Horses | NYC | 20 | |
| 4860 | Salesian Ironmen | NYC | 23 | |
| 5030 | The Second Mouse | CNY | 21 | Did Not Participate |
| 5202 | NewRo Bots | NYC | 20 | |
| 5254 | HYPE | Rochester | 20 | Attended Ruckus 21 |
| 5585 | Blood, Sweat & Gears | CNY | 20 | |
| 5590 | Alumiboti | Rochester | 20 | Returned in 23 |
| 5659 | Team Supreme | Long Island | 23 | |
| 5943 | The Bad News Gears | NYC | 20 | |
| 6195 | GOLDBOTS | NYC | 20 | |
| 6422 | GearHeadz | Long Island | 20 | |
| 6484 | TechKnowLogic | Albany | 20 | |
| 6590 | SaviTech | NYC | 20/23 | Returned in 23/ Gone again |
| 6746 | Mustangs | Long Island | 21 | |
| 6873 | The Generals | NYC | 22 | |
| 7004 | Ossining Owls | NYC | 19/23 | Returned in 23/ Gone again |
| 7251 | Warrior Robotics | Rochester | 20 | |
| 7400 | ThunderMiners | Long Island | 20 | |
| 7651 | Bethlehem Eagles | Albany | 21 | |
| 8003 | Bushmen Robotics | NYC | 20 | Rookies who never competed |
| 8241 | Iron Ram | NYC | 20 | rookies who never competed |
| 8284 | Urban Planners | NYC | 20 | rookies who never competed |
| 8346 | STEAM Machine | NYC | 23 | |
| 8603 | The Discord Droids | NYC | 21 | rookies who competed |
| 8637 | Packer Pelicans | NYC | 21 | rookies who competed |
50 teams have shut down since Covid, and 7 teams have returned on this list. (2 are gone again)
Who knows how many of these teams may have continued without covid putting them to an early end, and how many students unfortunately miss out.
Rip 5030. I loved the name
We still have Christopher Walken whenever we need the pick-me-up.
To correct some information.
There are 3 Regions in NY
FIRST Long Island - Covers the LI regional and roughly 50 teams (covers Nassau/Suffolk but does bleed over with some of the usual NYC teams we see often.)
NYC FIRST - NYC regional and 41 teams in the 5 boroughs
Upstate FIRST - HVR, FLR, TVR regionals, and the remaining teams.
Correct. HVR was formally run by NYC FIRST. It is being restarted this year as an effort by Upstate FIRST.
The websites for NYTR, NYRO, and NYSU all led me to believe that they were run independently, which is also what I’d heard about them before now. It’s good that everything is slightly less disconnected than I initially thought.
How are you doing the sectioning of teams? 1665 was in Columbia county, and the closest event was TVR/NYTR.
Here’s how I broke down the data. (Note I’ve manually built this spreadsheet I use, and need to try and incorporate pulling data from Blue Alliance more.)
This was my curiosity of which teams registered to what events, I also have a tab with every NY team events for 24, a running log of which teams folded (with notes of returns), NY growth each year, and # of teams in regionals/each district year over year.
| Team Number | Name | 24 event | Part of NY (Home Event Region) | County |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | The Rocketeers | HVR | Albany | Saratoga |
| 28 | Pierson Whalers | NYC | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 191 | X-CATS | FLR | Rochester | Monroe |
| 229 | Division By Zero | TVR | Albany | St Lawerence |
| 250 | The Dynamos | HVR | Albany | Albany |
| 263 | Aftershock | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 271 | Mechanical Marauders | FLR | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 287 | Floyd Robotics | HVR | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 329 | Mohawks | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 333 | MEGALODONS | NYC | NYC | Brooklyn |
| 334 | TechKnights | NYC | NYC | Brooklyn |
| 335 | Skillz Tech Gear Botz | NYC | NYC | Brooklyn |
| 340 | G.R.R. (Greater Rochester Robotics) | Pitt | Rochester | Monroe |
| 353 | POBots | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 354 | G-House Pirates | NYC | NYC | Brooklyn |
| 358 | Robotic Eagles | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 369 | High Voltage Robotics | HVR | NYC | Brooklyn |
| 378 | The Circuit Stompers | FLR | Rochester | Niagara |
| 395 | 2 Train Robotics | HVR | NYC | Bronx |
| 424 | Rust Belt Robotics | FLR | Rochester | Erie |
| 496 | Royals | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 514 | Entropy | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 527 | Red Dragons | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 533 | The PSIcotics | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 545 | ROBO-DAWGS | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 564 | Longwood Robotics | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 569 | Rambots | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 578 | R-cubed - Red Raider Robotics | Pitt | Rochester | Monroe |
| 601 | BayBots | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 639 | Code Red Robotics | FLR | Rochester | Tompkins |
| 640 | Edison Robotics | NYC | NYC | Queens |
| 694 | StuyPulse | FLR | NYC | NYC |
| 743 | Technobots | NYC | NYC | Bronx |
| 806 | The Brooklyn Blacksmiths | LI | NYC | Brooklyn |
| 810 | The Mechanical Bulls | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 870 | TEAM R. I. C. E. | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 871 | Robotechs | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 1126 | SPARX | FLR | Rochester | Monroe |
| 1155 | SciBorgs | NYC | NYC | Bronx |
| 1405 | Finney Falcons | FLR | Rochester | Monroe |
| 1450 | XQ Robotix | FLR | Rochester | Monroe |
| 1468 | Hicksville J-Birds | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 1493 | Falcons | TVR | Albany | Albany |
| 1507 | Warlocks | FLR | Rochester | Niagara |
| 1511 | Rolling Thunder | TVR | Rochester | Monroe |
| 1518 | Raider Robotics | FLR | Rochester | Wayne |
| 1546 | Chaos, Inc. | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 1554 | Oceanside Robotics | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 1559 | Devil Tech | Pitt | Rochester | Ontario |
| 1585 | Scitobor Robotics | FLR | Rochester | Ontario |
| 1591 | Greece Gladiators | FLR | Rochester | Monroe |
| 1601 | Quantum Samurai | NYC | NYC | Queens |
| 1796 | RoboTigers | NYC | NYC | Queens |
| 1803 | Vikings | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 1880 | Warriors of East Harlem | NYC | NYC | NYC |
| 2027 | Robotic Dragons | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 2053 | Southern Tier Robotics | Pitt | CNY | Broome |
| 2161 | Robocats | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 2228 | CougarTech | Pitt | Rochester | Monroe |
| 2265 | Fe Maidens | NYC | NYC | Bronx |
| 2340 | Xcentrics | FLR | Rochester | Monroe |
| 2344 | The Saunders Droid Factory | NYC | NYC | Westchester |
| 2347 | Trial and Error | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 2487 | Mechanical Animals | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 2601 | Steel Hawks | NYC | NYC | Queens |
| 2638 | Rebel Robotics | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 2791 | Shaker Robotics | HVR | Albany | Albany |
| 2869 | Regal Eagles | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 2872 | CyberCats | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 2875 | CyberHawks | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 2895 | Blazenbots | NYC | NYC | Queens |
| 3003 | TAN(X) | TVR | Rochester | ontario |
| 3004 | Bronx Knights | NYC | NYC | Bronx |
| 3015 | Ranger Robotics | Pitt | Rochester | Monroe |
| 3044 | Team 0xBE4 | FLR | Albany | Saratoga |
| 3053 | VB Stingers | NYC | NYC | Queens |
| 3137 | T-Birds | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 3171 | HURRICANES | HVR | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 3173 | IgKnighters | South Florida | Rochester | Monroe |
| 3181 | Pittsford Panthers | FLR | Rochester | Monroe |
| 3204 | Steampunk Penguins | HVR | NYC | Queens |
| 3419 | RoHawks | NYC | NYC | NYC |
| 3624 | ThunderColts | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 3760 | AeroBots | NYC | NYC | Bronx |
| 3799 | Electric Fire | FLR | Rochester | Chemung |
| 3838 | Roc City Robotix | FLR | Rochester | Monroe |
| 3950 | RoboGym Robotics | HVR | Long Island | Nassau |
| 3951 | SUITS | FLR | Rochester | ontario |
| 4012 | Bad News Bots | NYC | NYC | Staten Island |
| 4093 | Hardwired | FLR | Rochester | Orleans |
| 4122 | Ossining O-Bots | TVR | NYC | Westchester |
| 4299 | BCS RoboSharks | NYC | NYC | Brooklyn |
| 4458 | Infernobotix | TVR | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 4567 | The Mechanized Mafia | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 4571 | Rambots | NYC | NYC | NYC |
| 4930 | Electric Mayhem | Miami Valley | Rochester | Erie |
| 5016 | Huntington Robotics | HVR | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 5099 | Northport Robotics | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 5123 | Mechadogs | NYC | HVR | Westchester |
| 5149 | TroyBotics | TVR | Albany | Albany |
| 5298 | E-TECH CHARGERS | NYC | NYC | Queens |
| 5421 | Birch Bots | NYC | NYC | NYC |
| 5590 | Alumiboti | TVR | Rochester | Erie |
| 5599 | The Sentinels | LI | Long Island | Queens |
| 5736 | Kingsmen Robotics | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 5806 | Basement Lions | NYC | NYC | Bronx |
| 5881 | TVHS Dragons | TVR | Albany | Albany |
| 6300 | Northwood School Robotics | TVR | Albany | Essex |
| 6401 | 8-bit RAMs | HVR | HVR | Rockland |
| 6423 | Iron Patriots | HVR | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 6463 | Robotic Rams | HVR | Albany | Ulster |
| 6593 | HyperDrive Robotics | HVR | NYC | Queens |
| 6621 | Artemis Robotics | TVR | Albany | Columbia |
| 6636 | Full Metal Beavers | NYC | NYC | Queens |
| 6648 | MechaSpartans | TVR | NYC | Queens |
| 6806 | Wild Reds | HVR | Long Island | Nassau |
| 6868 | Cadet Robotics | FLR | Rochester | Monroe |
| 6880 | Universal Serial Brawlers (USB) | HVR | HVR | Westchester |
| 6911 | SO BOTZ | TVR | HVR | Rockland |
| 6969 | Cyborgs | HVR | HVR | Rockland |
| 7030 | Lake Placid Robotics - The ROBOlympians | TVR | Albany | Essex |
| 7031 | Duanesburg Jr./Sr. High School | TVR | Albany | Schenectedy |
| 7036 | The RoarBots | NYC | NYC | Brooklyn |
| 7272 | Envirobots | NYC | NYC | NYC |
| 7318 | Nanuet Knightronz | HVR | HVR | Rockland |
| 7504 | Cybearbots | HVR | HVR | Putnam |
| 7668 | GatorBots | NYC | NYC | NYC |
| 7718 | HVPA Dragons | TVR | Albany | Ulster |
| 7730 | Aperture Robotics | HVR | HVR | Rockland |
| 7759 | Bulldog Bytes | HVR | HVR | Westchester |
| 7903 | Rochester Prep | FLR | Rochester | Monroe |
| 8267 | Riptide Robotics | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 8739 | Redhawk Robotics | NYC | NYC | Queens |
| 9016 | Syosset Braves | LI | Long Island | Nassau |
| 9052 | B-3 Brandeis Bionic Bulldogs | NYC | NYC | NYC |
| 9295 | Harlem Rails | NYC | NYC | NYC |
| 9437 | Uncommon Collegiate Charter | NYC | NYC | Brooklyn |
| 9509 | Yonkers Partners in Education | NYC | HVR | Westchester |
| 9636 | West End Secondary | NYC | NYC | NYC |
| 9642 | I.N.T Robotics | NYC | NYC | NYC |
| 9646 | Mariners | LI | Long Island | Suffolk |
| 9705 | East Rampo | HVR | HVR | Rockland |
| 9713 | Martins | HVR | HVR | Orange |
Yeah i was just confused as to why we were considered NYC
My best guess, is either I got confused with 1660, or by assuming HVR as the 2020 event they were in the HVR region. When I worked on the sheet a while back I grouped it as 4 regions because HVR was gone at that point.
There are a couple of other factors to consider that haven’t already been mentioned:
Examples:
2017, 2018: NYTR and NYRO
2019 NYRO and NYUT
2020: NYTR and NYRO, NYUT and NYSU
2022: NYRO Thurs.- Sat. NYTR Sun.-Wed. of the same week
2024: NYTR and NYLI
There were a lot of discussions and much work was done to try to avoid overlaps like these over the years but for a lot of reasons was unable to occur.
This is/was challenging for teams when considering how to choose events to maximize cost/proximity ease while trying to avoid stress of back to back events etc. There are many key volunteers that volunteer both upstate and downstate, but it becomes challenging to utilize this volunteer base most efficiently when events are running simultaneously.
While we have our challenges we really have a lot of wonderful events and volunteers working hard to make the FRC experience for New York teams the best it can be! 
Sidenote for the map: Team 5149 is the Troy High School team from Rensselaer county (it does say Albany as their location on the team search but they are located in Rensselaer county).
I went based on FRC events/find a team page and it had them listed as Albany.
