What is your opinion on the best team of the 2010 FRC competition season?
Personally I think the two best robots were 229 and 217.
Define best!?
Best robot or best team?
Best robot, hands-down, is 469. No argument, no discrepancies, no doubt.
Best team? Mine. 
FIRST presents the Chairman’s Award to the team they think is best, and the best robot tends to win matches and earn trophies. The best team might not have the best robot. What are you really asking?
Any robot that inspired more than a single student to pursue their passion was the best robot.
My vote would have to go to one of the underwater team that enabled the capping of the oil well. This is a pretty big deal as my year after year favorites have been on Mars for quite some time.
There is no argument for any team that is not 469. No team has ever had such a dramatic effect on the game this year than them. If you’ve ever seen 469 compete, especially at MSC, Curie, or IRI, you really just can’t dispute it…
If you put any redirection bot aside, though, you can have a fun argument and discussion on the relative merits of great “overall” teams like 67, 33, 1718, 1519, 294, and 1625, but I feel 1114 was a cut above the rest in all aspects of the game.
If you break it down by zone and role it gets more interesting. Some robots were pretty good overall but GREAT in the front. 359, 910, and 971 are the immediate first choices there. The backbot was a role I felt that teams that really excelled at had the most competitive success this year, as it was a role a lot of teams were willing to give up or throw their second pick at but was a lot more important than many alliances thought at selection time. 294 is the superstar here, plus 3138, 217 / 148, and 33.
There’s still two months left in 2010. Isn’t this discussion a little premature?
The apple doesn’t fall far …
To take your witticism seriously for a minute, I would say not.
Let’s take the main contenders for the prize: 1114, 469, 67, 33, 1718, 1519, 294, and 1625 in my opinion as outlined below. Michigan is done with offseasons basically right now, so you can cut those teams out which leaves 294, 1519, and 1625. 294’s traditional offseason participation is over, and 1114 and 1625 don’t have offseasons in their region. That leaves 1519, whom might go to Bash at the Beach or one of the other late NE offseasons, but while they’re great, I doubt they will suddenly grow above and beyond the other “contenders” here.
I cant believe no one has thrown 2056’s hat into the ring yet?
WMRI? Michigan isn’t quite done yet.
Surprised no one has mentioned 254 and 233 yet. 254 handily won two regionals, was #1 seed in their division, and 233 was their pick (in a stacked division).
I wouldnt say 233 as a best robot contender for the year. 254 yes. 233 no. Now, From thinking of teams that also made it to Einstein, I would mention that rookie team that made it. I believe they were The Comets, but idr the team ####
I agree that 254 should certainly be in the conversation for best robot of the year.
However, I don’t think 233 fits in the category. 233 had a rough start to the season (missed elims in Florida and semis in LA). As usual, 233 were masters of continuous improvement and were much better at championships than they were in Florida or LA.
They didn’t perform great at Florida, but certainly improved for LA, and improved leaps and bounds for champs.
You don’t get picked by the #1 seed (above team 33) in a stacked division by a team with great scouting without being one of the best.
Even still, if you are gonna be considered the best robot of the YEAR, you have to have performed at that level through the entire year. For instance: 67, 25, 254, 469, 33, 1114, 2056, 1625, each did ungodly amazing at each and every event they attended.
It’s kind of hard to argue about a great being “worse” or imply they’re even “bad” but watching video and seeing matches with 233 and 254 compared to the others, it’s clear that 254 is one of the most dominant robots in FRC this year, and 233 was getting there at Championships, but in my mind was just below that level. Obviously they’re a fantastic team I wouldn’t hesitate to join an alliance with, though.
It’s hard for this kind of thing not to just end up being “a list of every good robot” so I kept my list to like 6 or 7 teams.
1114 has an off season well in range of them (Rah Cha Cha Ruckus) but ever since their terrific 2005 robot unleashed a mushroom cloud of agony at the last Canada’s Wonderland event they probably aren’t too enthused about overtaxing their very much used robot. Plus it didn’t help that they haven’t found a new home for their off season since Canada’s Wonderland got bought out and booted the event out of their park (a big mistake on their behalf).
The best robot, a mixture between design, aesthetics, and performance(not driver performance)