EVERY team got to play on Einstien…and got heatstroke.
Just out of curiosity, when did they stop doing Einstein outdoors? Before I was born possibly (June 1999)?
2002 was the last time
Nope, that’s 2002’s game in the picture. I was at the 2000 National competition in the same location.
That’s the last time Einstein was outdoors, BTW. (The other fields were in tents off to the left-back of frame, they can’t be seen. Pits were in tents back there as well.)
Einstein (once they started calling it that) moved indoors when Nationals stopped being Nationals–the infamous 2003 Championship in Houston.* (Infamous because of the nice steep Astrodome ramps that every. single. robot. had to go up for every. single. match., and the security checks on everybody entering the Reliant, robot and all. It was a LONG walk.)
*Real old-timers will quibble on it moving indoors, because the first few Nationals events were actually indoors–in Manchester, NH, in a gym. That was before the move to Disney World in the mid-1990s–but they didn’t start having multiple fields before the move, I don’t think.
After 2002 FIRST hastily patched together a one and done championship in Houston. Reliant Stadium was beautiful. The Astrodome (where the pits were next door and the constant reference to walking a mile uphill BOTH WAYS is brought up) should be burned to the ground along Astroworld.
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Nationals stopped being Nationals in 1998, when the first Canadian team, 188, showed up. Unfortunately it took FIRST a few years to recognize the international nature of their own event and change the official name.
The irony of a contest at Epcot with an International Pavilion and a Canadian Pavilion…not realizing they have actual people from there in their game 
Ah yes! When Einstein was out in the HOT Florida sun!
I doubt anyone actually remembers this.
Also note that FIRST became international in 1994 when a team from Kingston, Jamaica competed.
1994 team list (pdf link)
Now that’s an image I wish I could unsee…
Relative to…
Is it bad that the first thing I did when I saw this picture was to check the game, and the second thing I did was to see if I could find myself in it? That was my freshman year in high school, and I was fortunate enough to be a member of FRC 173, we were number 1 seed, and won our division, and then the event. 2002 is the first year I can find that “Nationals” became The Championship officially.
Same. 
It was a lot of fun to play “I Spy”. Also surprising how well the branding of many teams has lasted all these years.
I would love for someone (or group) to make a book of FRC history to celebrate FRC’s 25th anniversary this year by having some of the “more experienced” FRC folks submit their own stories and pictures from the past.
(I would totally be up for helping make this happen)
A “Back in My Day” book? That could be amazing, or terrible. I just keep having flashbacks to the get off my lawn threads of late…
That being said, back in my day, we didn’t have bumpers, and loved it.
I was hoping when they announced no bumpers this year that we would have that again. Those days were great. You had to make chassis that could take good hits.
Never underestimate the pain that two drill motors can bring… Remember how by '05, an awful lot of offense robots had angled sides just to keep the D off?
I actually wasn’t around, but I’ve heard stories from fellow mentors, watched videos, and seen the carnage to our old robots that I want it back.
Wouldn’t it also be good for some of the newer members to share some of their experiences? It’s great to see some of the first impressions that FIRST makes on people. Great idea, btw.