It looks like every 2022 Einstein alliance has at least 1 California team on it. We have 1323 on Carver, 254 on Galileo, 1678 on Hopper, 973 on Newton, 5940 on Roebling, and 4414 on Turing.
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Don’t forget about 604, alliance captain #1 on Carver! They’ve been hella cooking this year!
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True, how could I forget the 1st seed alliance captain 
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And not a single team from Minnesota made it past semis 
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Apt phrase for the thread
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#Hellafornia
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Conversely, I think it’s interesting that Michigan’s representation on Einstein is so low. 3175 is a second pick and 3534 and 3603 are third picks, but no captains or first picks. Considering how tight the competition was at MSC (and as a homer), that surprises me a little. It seems overall that the balance of power has swung toward the regional teams this season, with just three of the 12 captains/first picks (although 12 of 24 overall) coming out of district systems.
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This might be a spicy hot take, but for a while now, the top end of Michigan has been a bit weaker than the top end of other regions (Cali, Ontario, Texas, and recently Israel). This wasn’t clear to everyone because of split champs.
I don’t think this is necessarily true and skews towards regional teams largely because of California’s strong representation. The top teams from Texas, Washington, and Israel are all definitely world-contender-tier teams. I think in a standard year Ontario would have a much stronger showing, but given that some teams were unable to enter their shops until several weeks into build season, it’s already quite impressive what they were able to achieve.
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I don’t dispute that, actually. I think that’s been the case all along. But there’s a difference between being the “best” team in a vacuum and actually making it through divisional playoffs at the championship. Teams in Michigan have had a lot of success at championships for the last few years, even considering the split. I don’t think the overall quality of the Detroit championship was consistently that much lower than Houston for that to explain it. I think it’s just the way the chips fell in the divisional playoffs this year. But ultimately that’s just conjecture and I can’t back it up without more years of one-champs data.
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As someone from the west coast of Michigan, and is now in the process of moving to California I can safely say, west coast best coast.
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A California team has won a Championship every year since 2014 (always from the captain/first pick spot too), seems like no one was interested in waiting for Einstein to play out to guarantee the streak continued.
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I actually have a theory on this one based on what is apparently now equivalent to peer reviewed studies… by which I mean I pulled it outta 125’s ball rejection system.
CA has long been a hotbed of software. While at mid to upper levels FRC can still be played as a largely mechanical competition (or using COTs solutions like Limelight) the top tiers are slowly becoming more dominated by software. MI doesn’t have nearly the density of teams that have emphasized software as a competitive advantage for years as they do for mechanical solutions.
It’s a cultural difference and we’re seeing the impact at the top.
Or I’m completely mad. I’m not going to rule that out.
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I actually think it’s quite reflective of the industries present in each area. Many technical mentors in Michigan will be from very traditional automotive backgrounds, while there will be more software/robotics/controls people in California.
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Michigan person here,
Not denying anything said above, but important to note that for some of these regional teams they last competed in March. All of the FiM teams have basically been going non stop for two weeks straight, having only about a 48 hour break from MSC to head out for Houston, the bots and people are worn out lol.
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CAN was invented for the 20, 30, or 40+ modules in a modern automobile can share data and make requests of each other. Lots of work being done on “self driving” by the automakers and other companies based in MI. So yes there is a lot of relevant software knowledge in MI.
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Yes, hence why I focused on cultural norms.
If you ask an oncology group what’s wrong they are more than likely going to immediately think cancer… if you ask a group of teams that have been very successful with heavily mechanical solutions to solve a game challenge they are going to find mechanical solutions.
I’m by no means saying there are not intelligent software engineers in MI. I’m saying that there isn’t a culture of focusing resources there. FIM is a unique and weird place, the overwhelming majority of the legendary teams in MI are from one county, there is a lot of interconnectedness there and this can serve to reinforce behaviors (and approaches). The left coast has a similar connectedness (though at a much lower density) but tended to also emphasize software solutions.
The overwhelming majority of the legendary teams in CA have lead mentors on friendly first-name basis with each other. I think it’s simpler than you’re making it out to be, hanging out with successful people teaches you how to emulate them.
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I don’t, almost all of the typical Michigan contenders ended up on one field…
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Are you trying to say 254, 973, 1323, and 1678 didn’t develop their 2018 intakes independentlly? /s
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