Hi all,
Time for this weeks question!
**Question of the Week (8/24/04):
What single event do you think made the most impact on how we see FIRST today?**
As always, questions are good…so good in fact that I’d like to take them from you! I am a question monger. Send them to me! [email protected] (or if you are an AIM monger like me, QuietRiverRage1)…then there is always a PM.
Have a great week!
-Andy Grady
What single event do you think made the most impact on how we see FIRST today?
That question takes me back to my freshman year… when i was nothing but just a dummy… First time i walked into a FIRST environment at epcot. that was 2002 Nationals. Seeing all the robots going at each other, relations between people in general in FIRST, the gracious professionalism made me say “wow… this is great.” Just like me… there might be a lot of others who walked in to a FIRST arena and never could let them outta there like i cant now… going to regionals and nationals is like routine for me every year. Sometime it makes me think that what would i do without FIRST… 
I say for the off-season comps. it has to be IRI. I say IRI due to the “electric” vibe, you can’t beat being real close to the field and hearing the people screaming their heads off.
For the regular season, I would have to say MWR 04’. (I have only been on the team one year remember.) I liked MWR this year because it seemed to be very well prepared. If you needed anything most teams wouldn’t think twice about letting you borrow or give you the part.
I hope that next year the Purdue Regional will top the MWR 04’.
-Kyle
Andy: great question!
Hands down I would have to say the introduction of alliances in 1999. Alliances forced teams to work together and made sharing of information a critical part of being successful in FIRST. Communication between teams became the newest challenge teams had to conquer. Alliances today are a way of life. Teams share everything now. The shift of thinking to “Co-opertition” is the foundation of how so many teams have become very successful in this program, and how young teams to quickly grow as part of the FIRST community.
Steve
The introduction of the IFI control system and speed controllers in 2000.
I feel this began the era of “Modern FIRST” that we see now.
The addition of the IFI control system was huge, BUT
I think the sharing of drivetrain designs. The level of competition has gone up through the roof since people started doing that. By seeing these designs, people have been inspired to take them, modify them to ways they feel are better and go publish them to share…wash, rinse, repeat…etc
People are inspired (that I word again) and the level of competition goes up…it’s a win win situation for everyone
The first time teams played as partners in the 1999 competition. It changed the way the teams interacted with each other, defused much of the negative competitiveness and created a community of teams with good memories of playing as partners. It was a leap ahead for the competition and the way we all play.
WC 
I had two events in my head when I first read this question.
1.) Alliances - Already stated by Steve & Wayne
2.) Rumble at the Rock. Although I never attended one, I feel that it single-handedly turned FIRST into a year-long thing as opposed to a Jan-April thing, as well as helped set the cornerstone for the FIRST community as we see it today.
Although I feel that there are other changes that have had great impact on FIRST, as for actual events…the shift to alliances and Rumble have had the most impact yet.
I’ve only been in FIRST for a year, but the first thing that came to mind was its creation. Without that single event, where would we be? We wouldn’t even be able see FIRST today.
For me, it’s the advent of ChiefDelphi.com
Memories of events from the KickOff thru the Nats tend to fade (could be my senior condition); but CD’s here to keep it vibrant 24/7/365.
I gotta say that the stretcher in 2001 made the biggest impact in FIRST, over everything else.
OK, seriously, I agree that the onset of alliances in '99 was huge. The concept of competing with a random partner and then picking alliances for the finals forced teams to work together. Teams developed better marketing and salesmanship skills and had to be accountable to other teams for the way they played the game. This raised the level of GP dramatically.
Andy B.
According to Woodie, alliances were introduced as a result of events at the 1998 competition. Back then we competed 1 v 1 v 1 and there were no divisions.
An interesting result of the 1998 competition was that NONE of the top ten seeds on Friday were in the Elimination phase of the competition. Thinking this strange, FIRST went back and looked at the tapes. In almost every match where there was a top seeded robot, the other two would gang up on it and ensure that it scored few or no points. Woodie was reluctant to say there had been collusion between the lower ranked teams because what they were doing was an obvious strategic move. But it certainly looked that way. Then he uttered those words that are seared into my memory, “Since collusion cannot be prevented, henceforth it will be required”. As we all went to work trying to find the jaws we had dropped on the floor, Woodie went on to explain the alliance system we all know and love.
Thus the alliance system was a result of an earlier event. I would suggest that the critical event in the development of FIRST was not the introduction of alliances, but the realization that they were needed. While I was only around for that last year of single combat, even I could tell that there was a different spirit the next year. It also changed the way we as a team did business. Before alliances, we didn’t even think about marketing, now we consider it a key team function. Of course, the best marketing at a competition is still a high seed. 
That gets my vote for having the most impact on today’s FIRST.
What a great, thought-provoking question…
The top four, in my opinion:
I think the most important development was the creation of this website. This is the venue around which the FIRST community gathers. The evolution and growth of FIRST would have been much less efficient without the CD forums. Sure, others could have done it, others HAVE done it, but this is the original and best.
Alliances. Above posts already covered it well.
Mr. Francois Castaing’s impact on Midwest (okay, Michigan) teams. It was he who persuasively twisted the arms of countless auto industry people to get us to where there are 3 Michigan regionals, many teams, and healthy support.
The “Indiana Mafia.” Beatty/Hammond keeps winning regionals/nationals and their spawn go on to create great teams. Technokats get famouser and famouser due to hard work, sharing, Andy Baker, and others. More teams with great leaders and hard-working members build a community one team at a time.
coming soon 5. Explosion of Canadian teams. The descendants of 188 go on to do for Canada what Castaing and La Cosa Hoosier did for their regions. Thanks in advance, Mr. Breadner et al :).
I’m sure there is a California story that parallels 3,4,5, but I don’t know it…
Ken
My first thought when I saw that question was alliances. But, '99 was my first year in FIRST, so all I’ve known are alliances. But this point has been covered real well, so that’s all I’ll say.
My next thought was Chief Delphi. CD brought together teams from across the country (and beyond!) to share ideas, plans, and hypothetical situations throughout the entire season. This community, I believe, has been an incredible contribution to the growth and evolution of FIRST. I can’t imagine what it would be like without CD. And, besides all the technical advantages of being able to share ideas and get great advice and help…FIRST just wouldn’t be the same without getting to know people through this forum. I remember when I first met Andy Baker (yes Andy, I still remember ) at the 2001 Nats and he came up to me with Michael and said, “you must be Christina.” It was the first time I’ve ever met anyone from the forum (in person) and I already felt like I knew him. It was great!
Well, that my $0.02. Heh. I can’t even remember the last time I replied to a QOTW.
Okay,
So I think that by far the single greatest change to FIRST was alliances. There are two impacts of alliances that seem to have been over looked (at least in the threads I skimmed). One is that pre-alliances there was no “FIRST Community” if you talked to someone on another team at a regional or sat with another team you were a traitor and conspiring with the enemy. I often think about how many of the friendships I have now in the FIRST Community would simply not have been possible pre-alliances.
Secondly I think another HUGE impact on FIRST in general which was an off shoot of alliances was the concept of “copertition.” Pre-alliances everything was raw score. The advent of copertition has it’s pros (though I’m loathe to admit them) and cons as with everything. Certainly the idea that your score is dependent on the score of your opponent has forever altered the FIRST landscape (for the worse in my own opinion).
Lastly I’ll just say briefly that Rumble at the Rock and in fact the entire Plymouth North Team are entities that will not be replaced. At the time they were the team that I think many other teams wanted to try and emulate in the way they carried themselves, presented themselves to the community. Perhaps a large part of what one them the chairman’s award is that the reached out to the FIRST community as a whole before it was perhaps viewed as appropriate (and now even required.)
Sorry for the long winded post. Hopefully you made it here.
-Justin
I think the biggest impact was when the championship moved out of a high school gym and into EPCOT. When it was at EPCOT (especially in 95 and 96, when it was inside the park instead of the parking lot), a LOT of people got to see it that otherwise would never have attended. Every single time we crossed with our robot from where the pit area was to the arena (cutting across the main path that travels around the park), people who were just there on vacation would ask what our contraption was for. We’d point them to the stage, with colorful banners and lights and the signature FIRST music and more often than not they’d go sit in the stands and watch for a while. I think being at EPCOT really made it a fun, cool event to show off to prospective sponsors & teams that differentiated itself from a lot of other high-school competitions.
Where you have been hiding at Christina? Life keepin’ ya busy? 
There’s been a lot of talk about the start of alliances. ChrisH brings up a great story with the collusion during the 1v1v1 matches. Some great robots really got the short end of the stick in that situation, especially the team that hosts this fine website.
I agree that the advent of alliances has had the greatest impact on FIRST, but the specific event I’m thinking has to do with the perfection of the alliance system. When alliances were introduced at the 1999 kickoff, the elimination round alliances consisted of only two teams. Teams were not allowed to pick within the top 8. To further complicate things you were allowed to decline ANY pick.
At the 1999 Great Lakes regional, (the last weekend of the regional season) FIRST called for a vote on whether a third team should be added to alliances. This vote was a result of robots breaking down during the elimination rounds at other regionals, creating a lot of 2 on 1 situations. The results of the vote were overwhelmingly in favour of the three team alliances.
Combining the free decline situation, not being able to pick within the top 8 and third team added to the alliances, created some unfortunate situations at GLR. There were allegations of teams throwing matches to drop out of the top 8. There were allegations of premade alliances. Teams declining everyone in the first round, so they could go in the second round. It was a big mess. Definitely a low point of GP.
So when we went to nationals at EPCOT, Woodie informed us of a new rule change, if you declined, you were done. This basically eliminated premade alliances. It was this improvement that made alliances the great GP promoting system that they’ve become.
Yea, life has definitely been keeping me busy. Since I made the move to RIT a couple of years ago, things have gone crazy. I’ve been doing a lot of “behind-the-scenes” stuff for FIRST though, like the Rochester…ermm…Finger Lakes Regional and the RIT FIRST club and all that good stuff. Now I got my last year of college (stupid 5 year school) and senior design to worry about. But, don’t worry, Joseph (Ross) keeps me coming back if he sees anything interesting, and I think I’m around to stay…again.