Since it seems as though posting “heatmaps” (though I’ve since realized they aren’t actually heatmaps) has become cool since the FiT one got posted 24 hours ago, I figured I’d post some ones I did about 6 months ago. They’re based on 2023 numbers and use red = 1 team, orange = 2 teams, yellow = 3 teams, and varying shades between yellow and green to represent 4-18 teams.
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Technically Eau Claire County has two teams, not three. Leviathans helped start Trobots, a team that is out of New Auburn. New Auburn, confusingly, is mostly in Chippewa County, but, the New Auburn High School where Trobots is based is about 200 yards inside Barron County.
Oh, that’s interesting. I think I see why I filed them as Eau Claire County. The Blue Alliance says they’re in Eau Claire, not New Auburn, so I didn’t even know to suspect that they might not be Eau Claire County. I’ll see if I can find the file and make that change.
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Yes, it is/was an unusual situation. Leviathan essentially was a rookie team that was simultaneously starting another rookie team. It’s a complex story line. Put Trobots up into Barron county for accuracy. We need more teams in Western WI. Still working on Menomonie, so hope to add Dunn County next year. Oh, you should also add the new rookie team in Marshfield WI. Another city that overlaps two counties but put them into Wood County. Helps fill that huge central WI FIRST desert…
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Yeah that’s one thing I’ve realized from working on a few of these maps, rural areas are hard to fill. Central Wisconsin and Southern Illinois are both very empty, and then that same phenomenon popped up when I helped with the Texas team map. I don’t know what Indiana’s doing, but they’re much better at getting a balanced spread of teams throughout their state
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Don’t forget FIM. There are more teams per capita “Up North” than in the urban areas of the state.
One thing that helps is locating district events throughout the state, not just in team cluster centers. That can lead to more teams being established in the less-represented areas.
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Oh yeah I was just talking about the three states which I made maps for. Yes, I think the FiM per capita thing was pointed out when it turned out that the US House Rep with the most teams in their district is a rural Michigan house rep. That does also make sense for how that promotion happens, and also fits with FiT having almost no rural teams–all but one of their events are Texas Triangle.
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