Which FIRST team do you think is deserving of the honor?
I go with 67 who have won 2 world championships, they were a finalist another year as well as a division winner another year, a national Chairman’s award winner, have a Woodie Flowers award winner and have won 9 regionals.
Who is your choice?
I have to agree. You also forgot they won IRI in 2008.
They were a hundred more times impressive at Kettering. They annihilated a shooter allaince that would win most regionals by 50 points!
I have two other candidates:
** Team 71**
- 3 World Championships (2001, 2002, 2004)
- 1 World Finalist (2007)
- 4 Division Championships (2001, 2002, 2004, 2007)
- 8 Regional Championships
- 1 Woodie Flowers Award (Bill Beatty, 2002)
** Team 217**
- 2 World Championships (2006, 2008)
- 1 World Finalist (2009)
- 5 Divisions Championships (2001, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009)
- 6 Regional & District Championships
- 1 Woodie Flowers Award (Paul Copioli, 2005)
If I had to vote on one of these three teams (67, 71, 217), Beatty would get the nod based on the number World Championships.
I’ll throw in a 4th candidate.
** Team 111**
- 2 World Championships (2003, 2009)
- 1 World Finalist (2001)
- 3 Division Championships (2001, 2003, 2009)
- 7 Regional Championships
- 1 Woodie Flowers Award Winner (Dan Green, 2007)
On behalf of the rest of 67, we are honored just to be thought of in the discussion. I hope our luck continues into the next decade.
A couple of other worthy candidates:
111 - 2 World Championships, 1 Championship Finalists, 3 Division championships, 1 National Chairman’s award, 8 Regional championships, and a Championship Woody Flowers award winner.
217 - 2 World Championships, 1 Championship Finalists, 5 Division championships, 7 Regional/district/state championships, and a Championship Woody Flowers award winner.
71 - 3 World Championships, 1 Championship Finalist, 4 Divisions championships, 8 Regional wins, and a Championship Woody Flowers award winner.
Thinking about it for awhile, between (71,111, and 217) I have to go with 111 based on the strength of their Chairman’s award. I think that carries slightly more weight than a Championship.
My Decade Allaince is:
67, 111 and 217 with 71 being the backup.
I’ll throw in a fifth. Team 1114, Karthik 
- 1 World Championship (2008)
- 1 Division Championship (2008)
- 1 Division Finalist (2006)
- 11 Regional Championships
- 3 Regional Woodie Flowers Awards (2005, 2007, 2008)
- 1 Rookie All-star (2003)
- 2 Regional Finalists
- 3 Regional Chairman’s Awards
- 1 IRI Championship and 2 semis
Maybe not best, but surely deserving.
and remember 1114 started in 2003, giving 67, 111, 217, and 71 3 more years on them. My vote goes to 71.
67, 111, 71, 217, 365, and 341 are my choices for the finalists. Alliance 67, 365, and 341 v. Alliance 217, 111, and 71.
254 'nuff said
along with those previously mentioned of course.
That all depends, are we only considering robot dominance, or overall performance throughout the years (Including chairmans, and other awards like animation, etc.) Because if so, 365 and 341 are very deserving, but in the case of, it’s the finals, who do I want on my team? 71 and 1114 no doubt. I would like to see a dominate robot alliance, and a dominate “team alliance” so to speak that is a group of three teams whose work exemplifies FIRST in a positive way year in and year out.
Robot alliance: 71, 67, 114 (217, 111 as very close backups)
Overall team alliance: 365, 341, and (drum roll please) 842
71, they have inspired me the most.
Teams 67, 111, 217, and 1114 are also up there in IMHO!
Here are the “stats” for 254 to add to the discussion
2 Championship Finalists (2001, 2005)
1 Championship Division Finalist (2008)
16 Regional Championships
2 Regional Finalist
2 Regional Chairman’s
1 Championship Chairman’s (2004)
Personally I would go with 71 narrowly over 67 with 111 a close third.
- I think they would be deserving. I have not seen word of them in this thread yet.
Depends on what we are measuring. Dominance, 71 in 2002 or 1114 in 2008. Hands down. Nod goes to 71 out of my sheer respect for 71.
Most stunning rookie, 1114, 2056 would come a close second. (This is not based on their rookie year, it is based on impact since then as measured in my completely subjective manner.)
Most inspiring 968. I recall in 2005 a team that competed at one regional because they had no money to compete at more. I also remember the most gorgeous machine to come out of a FIRST team in years.
Team I most want to be on, toss up between 1114 and 33.
Most influential mentor, Andy Baker. Andy Baker and Mark Koors single handedly (ok not really but a bit of exaggeration never hurt anyone) launched 1000 rookie teams moving.
Team that will always hold a special place in my mind 47, the ringing in my ears you guys caused back at the 2003 Sweet Repeat hasn’t stopped yet.
Strongest supporter of FIRST, IFI. Consider the millions of dollars a year given away to teams in control systems, speed controllers, transmissions, and chassis material over the last couple years. Consider the thousands of hours of time spent supporting all that.
Any team who inspired at least one student is deserving.
I’ll vote for 67 over 71 because of their Championship Chairman’s Award. 71 and 111 are close seconds.
Not to take anything at all away from IFI (I think those guys are absolutely great), but all of that stuff was provided under a paid contract, not donated. Was it provided at a significantly discounted price, with IFI absorbing some of the cost? Absolutely. But it was not donated for free.
I think the role for strongest supporter of FIRST has to go to Autodesk. Nobody else is even a close second. Think about it - they have donated full-function versions of their software to every FRC team for the past 18 years. Over the years, that has totaled up to over 12,500 teams* receiving their software. The number of software seats per team has been increasing over the years but a conservative estimate of 65,000 seats is reasonable, based on the years that Autodesk provided 1, 5, 10 or unlimited seats per team. At an average price of $8,000 per seat** that is $520 million dollars worth of products that Autodesk has donated to FIRST teams. Yup - they have provided over half a BILLION dollars of support for this program.
EVERY team, whether you actively use their software or not, should send a huge “thank you!” to Autodesk for demonstrating a level of commitment to FIRST teams and the students in FRC that eclipses all others. If a few more companies followed their lead and showed their level of commitment, we actually might be able to get robotics competition teams in every high school in the country, and fundamentally change the way STEM education is implemented.
-dave
- source: FRC team count, FIRST 2008 Annual Report
** market price for combined 3DS Max / Inventor software package
…
“Team of the Decade” is a strange question.
As for the most dominant teams in competition, rattle off 71, 111, 217, 67, all the teams that won more than one Championship in this decade. Also excluding all teams that were only around for part of the decade (1114) or have never won a Championship despite being amazing (254’s the obvious one), simply because then you’d have to list more than 15 or 20 teams.
In terms of 2000s Championship Blue Banners:
71: 4 Division Wins, 3 Championship Wins
111: 3 Division Wins, 2 Championship Wins, 1 Chairman’s Award
67: 4 Division Wins, 2 Championship Wins, 1 Chairman’s Award
217: 4 Division Wins, 2 Championship Wins
That puts 71 and 67 on the same level, but 67 is a Hall of Fame team, so I’d have to give the nod to them in this mostly numerical analysis.
Other teams worth mentioning: 968 has appeared on Einstein every time they’ve attended the Championship Event. 254 and 1114 have a billion banners. All of the triple regional winners (1114, 1503, 1024, 67, 217), etc etc