1 Like
2910
9 Likes
1690 probably had the best bot there but I don’t know if their scouting was on it this year. Carver division was a mess in terms of alliance picks; I don’t think anyone expected 1323 to accept from rank 1 but they did and it took 1690 by surprise. I caught up with them after the comp and saw their bot and their bot really was einstein worthy. Had incredible software control and a lot of their designs were chosen with care and properly executed.
5 Likes
You can get past the valley of death at district/regional level and start consistenyl winning districts and even DCMPs. The next big hurdle for a team is to get past the valley of death at CMP, not good enough to be the top 4 teams in a division to easily make it out but definitely not bad enough to be a 2nd pick.
4 Likes
Because they missed the hopper in 2017 
3 Likes
6 Likes
I don’t know, their scouting seemed pretty good in my opinion…
5 Likes
In addition to the previously mentioned propensity for 604 and 1323 to team up, consider what would have happened to 1323 had they declined. I’m guessing 604’s next choice would have been 1690. If they accept then 1323 would have been facing those two, but even if they declined, 1690 would be burned and 1323 couldn’t pick them either (and then probably 870 would have been next to be grabbed or burned), leaving 1323 with 862 or thereabouts. It was definitely in 1323’s best interest to accept.
9 Likes
Unfortunately for us, we will forever be stuck in the “Bag Team, non-District” format forever…
3 Likes
Add 1983 to this as well. They’ve came close quite a few times, most recently in 2019, but despite being historically the best PNW team they’ve never made it. Even in 2015 they received 6 banners before champs but didn’t make it out of their division.
4 Likes
@waialua359 that doesn’t have to be true. You could definitely make Hawaii a district and FIRST would probably go for it.
6 Likes
He’s discussed that in other threads… but imagine if you had to fly, and ship your robot to, to every event your team attended in TX.
Now, add in that for a similar travel price, you can go to California, Utah, Idaho…
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see that, but IMO flying twice to compete is a completely different game than driving twice or thrice.
You could model things similar to Australia, New York, and other venues booking events back to back for constrained teams to get their two plays in by only flying once. $5k for two district events in one week compared to one regional sound like a better value.
3 Likes
If I’m counting correctly, there are 20 teams from Hawaii this year. If you can bump that up to maybe 24-26, I suppose you could run a pilot micro-district for just Hawaii. The regional already ran this year with seven alliances because there were only 25 teams, so that format could be repeated, or you could use a six-alliance round robin as has been discussed.
Say you run one “district” and then one “district championship” that every team gets invited to. The point system could be double points for DCMP instead of triple because there’s only a single qualifier event, and Championship-qualifying awards (Chairman’s, EI, RAS) are only handed out at DCMP. Sadly that squeezes the few Japanese teams that showed up to the regional this year that much more, but we’re already facing that problem of district encroachment near low-density regions and it needs a longer-term solution anyway.
2 Likes
We did 3 round trips this season. But nothing different than what we’re used to.
The biggest impact is No Bag. We need to figure something out or get very creative to maximize game play and iteration(s) before Champs. The amount of time lost traveling by air is a lot. And its also spending a day packing/unpacking a crate and taking it to Honolulu to have it shipped out. The logistics burn even more time.
And then there is that thing about money…need lots and lots of it.
1 Like
Seems like you’ve got to get the checked luggage game down 
No bag has only helped my team in terms of being able to reconstruct the robot in a hotel the night before competition. This has left more time to iterate, construct, calibrate, etc. at competition.
But back to the topic at hand, 1690 gets my vote. Always rooting for 2910 as well!
I’m going to throw 4499 (“The Highlanders”) into the ring. We had the opportunity to allly with them at Greater KC in 2020 and they are a fantastic team (and who also just missed making Einstein this year).
Speaking of KC, 1986 (“Team Titanium”) always has a very solid robot.
5 Likes
They had plenty of chances in the 2000s and 2010s but blew them all. Think them and 2056 have the most Einstein appearances without winning it! 233 isnt even close to the same team from that era, must of lost a lot of mentors.
33 is always hit or miss at the championship. Its just frustrating the lately to watch them dominate in Michigan but struggle at the championship. Thought the Michigan events are a great test for the best team there? Not sure what has to change from them going forward?
1 Like
Answering this three ways, based on my arbitrary method of, “who would I least like playing against Einstein finals and has not yet won a champs”. All are based on some Adam Heard™ average performance assessment during the time periods noted.
Last 5 calendar years (2018 and on)
4414
2910
2010’s
2056
1717* (struggled to put them here when they never demonstrated ability to win a division, but I’ll give them a pass as the robot’s were usually damn good)
2000’s
60
233
11 Likes