After seeing threads on successful teams, I figured it was time to give a shout out to teams who may not be as well known, but still display some great FIRST characteristics and show great potential. So say their team number and why they deserve a shout out. Mine would be team 3937 Breakaway, they have helped our team tremendously, but also have built a very competitive robot and were very good with their strategy analysis. They also practice Gracious Professionalism constantly, but don’t brag about it!
Before this year I would have named 2481 but they finally broke through on their first regional win and then a well deserved trip to Einstien.
Since 2481 is now ‘well known’, 706 probably shifts into that role. They were a regional finalist in 2010, 2013 and twice in 2014. They were also championship quarterfinalist in 2010. And they essentially built a 233 clone but with a swerve drive (unfortunately, that was 233’s (and 706’s) down year of 2009). Their students also give one of the best, most information and thorough, explanations of their robot every year.
I would like to thank 3847 (spectrum) for being great alliance partners in dallas also for teaching us so much in the short time that we meet you guys! I really hope we do have the chance to work together in the near future.
There were two fantastic rookies in Archimedes this year that were close to the top of our pick lists (but unfortunately no one else’s!).
4946, The Alpha Dogs, was a fantastic trussing machine. On our list of trussers, they were either second or third. They could long truss like 900 or they could do a shorter truss as well.
4914, The Panthers, had an interesting robot in that they had no floor pickup. And we wanted them to finish for us :D. They had a large net for human loading that made human loading super-easy, and we wanted them to receive a pass from a human player and make a high goal shot from the low goal. They were right on the cusp of being picked by our alliance.
Unfortunately we did not get the chance to pick either of these rookies- and an even greater folly was that they didn’t get picked at all!
4946 was rightfully awarded the Rookie Inspiration Award, however, and both rookie teams deserve to be mentioned.
Look out for them in the next couple years!
Fun fact: In researching these two rookies, we ventured out of Archimedes to 610’s pit and found one of their students there to ask about these Canadian rookies they had competed with. Upon mention of 4946, his eyes lit up:
“You mean ALPHA DOGE!?!?!?”
Needless to say that’s what we referred to them as for the rest of the weekend in our strategy meetings. Alpha Doge and the Net-bot. They both would have made such fantastic alliance partners.
I’d like to give a shout out to team 5172 Gators for being a great first year team. They did very well in the Northern Lights Regional with a great pick up and an even better shooter. They were a great rookie team that went on to Worlds and did a great job and they really deserved the highest rookie seed award. I can’t wait to see their new robot next year:D
Team 612 (6 What?..6 12!)
This team was local to the Greater DC Regional, and contacted us before the competition to welcome us. They told us that there would be a “welcome basket” at our hotel…but we were unprepared for the contents: Among other things, they had contacted all three of our representatives in Congress and had personal letters from them cheering us on.
When they discovered that there was no organized team social, they arranged gatherings every evening at a local Chipotle Restaurant, and when the restaurant was too crowded, a handful of their team members walked with us to another nearby restaurant and hung out with us for the whole evening. They were so personable, that to an outside observer, it was impossible to tell they were not part of our group.
I, as a member of team rembrandts, would like to do a shout out to team 836 - the robobees. However they are one of the older teams, they are not that well known. They actually won there first ever regional this year, congrats!, and ended up 7th in galileo. But the reason they stand out for us is the help they have given us both at our regional in north carolina and at worlds. Helping us fix our robot, actually going out and buying parts for us to make sure we could compeat. We would not have been able to compeat the way we did if it wasnt for them.
The second shout out goes to team 122 - the Nasa Knights. Again an older team which is not very well known and they werent able to make it to worlds this year. But they were the ones that came all the way to the Netherlands to tell us about first en frc and inspired and mentored us to the team that we are now. So eventhough we get quite a lot of praise from other teams and even Engeneering Inspiration at regionals and Imagery at worlds, we would not have been able to be the team we are now without them. So a major shout out to them!
I would like to give a shout-out to two teams who have helped catapult us to where our team is today. And ironically, we were with them both in Eliminations at Dallas this year!
Numero Uno is Team 704 Warrior Robotics. You guys got us started, and have been helping us ever since. We can always count on you guys, and we hope at some point that we can return all the favors you guys have given us. It’s always fun to share ideas with you guys.
Secondly, Team 3310, Blackhawk Robotics. You guys have a clean machine every year, and are always open to talk about it. You guys may not realize it, but by being selected as the last pickwith you guys in 2012 (our rookie year), you guys brought a wakeup call to our program. Because of all that you guys have showed us, we know what to strive for. And slowly with a couple of different influences, we’re working our way to a better program. But none of it would have been possible without you guys inspiring us that very first year.
I’d like to give another one to team 4522, team scream, they have an amazing robot this year and can really hold their own on the field this year. It was really fun working with them at Arkansas regional and they were great at analysis and game strategy!
They were some intense competitors! We faced them in OKC! Oh my gosh
Team 4819, Flat Mountain Mechanics.
In 2013, they were the highest rookie seed at both of the districts they went to (Kettering and Troy). Their robot had no shooter, but had a perfect 30 point climber.
We won the Great Lakes Bay Region District with them week 4. They were the main scoring robot on our alliance and were absolutely phenomenal to be partnered with. They had an intake that preformed very well, and also had a great shooter to boot.
I think the issue with this team not being noticed by other teams is their number. Who wants to be with a 2 year old team in eliminations? Who cares about a 2 year old team at all? I know I do. I find it very hard to believe they weren’t picked at MSC or on Curie this year. They were ranked 14th at MSC and 22nd on Curie.
They’ve definitely earned my respect and I think they deserve a shout out.
1 Like
2586 Copper Bots! - TBA
Two time district winner, three time district finalist, three appearances at MSC. And yet, they’re often overlooked, as they usually build the proverbial “defense bot”.
At the last three consecutive events, they’ve been last pick by the #1 seed, and have finished winner for 2, finalist for 1.
And they are the team in Michigan absolutely farthest from downstate, being about 20 minutes or so north of 857.
I have to give this one to 3266 Robots-R-Us. I always enjoy going to events with them and they have been very competitive the past few years.
I would like to give a shout out to 2220 Blue Twilight. They have helped us a lot this year with lending us parts and helping us prototype a shooter. They even lent us a cRIO for our demo bot when we needed one due to our only cRIO being bagged with this year’s robot. They’ve even been helping us find a programming mentor for next year.
So I know that 612 has already been mentioned, but they really deserve a second shoutout.
In addition to everything they did at DC, they also hosted a play day scrimmage the last weekend of Build Season when the official play-day was canceled due to snow. Also they did this all on extremely short notice (we got warned about play-day being canceled maybe 3 days in advance?)!
Thanks for saving our butts during build season 612! 449 owes you one.
There’s two teams id like to give a shout out to. The first is the Dirty Mechanics 3932 of Boca Raton. They are a three year old team that has been strong since day one, twice earning bids to worlds. They were a strong in bounding robot for S.P.A.M. at South Florida 2014 and played some heavy defense in the Curie division. Their kids are probably the most friendly in Florida behind Exploding Bacon and S.P.A.M.
The second would be SMASH 2152 from Port Orange/Daytona Beach/Volusia County. Their 2013 robot was a 30 point climb robot that nobody else had even attempted from my searching of videos, as it was an end over end corner climb and 20 point dump. Every design they produce has been unique in its own way and sometimes it takes the Orlando Regional by surprise. And again some of the most friendly kids I have met, which is why when I heard that they had no Community Outreach Mentor I joined on and am willing to drive over 3 hours each way every weekend just to help them out. This season as well they decided that no matter if they qualified for championship or not, they’d be attending every year to help out and to cheer on the Florida teams which is a HUGE thing in my books as it shows some serious GP.
(completely my personal opinion, does not reflect the views of any teams)
There are a lot of entities that made 4901’s first season the wild success it was, but probably the least-sung of them was (my alma mater) 1293.
When we started the team with an empty shop corner, they loaned us a chassis and electronics to get running for SCRIW. (Their part worked great!). When they found themselves short-handed selling programs at USC football games, they gave us a call and a shot to raise some money.
During the build season, we traded parts back and forth and they invited us over to scrimmage before bag day. After Palmetto, they loaned us some extra batteries and chargers for Orlando. After we won that, they let us make use of their crate for Championship and sent the SCRIW robot back to let us test the sensors we added on our intake and launcher.
These are things that we generally could’ve scraped together or gotten by without, but their help for our [strike]occasionally-shoestring[/strike] upstart operation has been unwavering and phenomenal. How they’ve gone eleven seasons with an empty trophy cabinet is completely beyond me*, but so help me the twelfth time’s the charm!
*Okay, I’ll take the heat for the first couple years when I was associated with them since I can see our mistakes with hindsight. So, uh, eight years? 
To add to fact that they are not only quality people but also very intelligent.
This year above most I really think they should have competed again. They had by definition one of the most perfect machines I had ever seen built dedicated to assisting and inbounding. Scouters at Palmetto were not educated enough to see it, but 1293 was by far one of the best 2nd picks any alliance could have asked for.
2014 may not have been kind to them, but with some of our new collaboration efforts in motion for 2015 I hope to see them rise to the top.
I would like to give a shoutout to Team 217 ThunderChickens.
At MSC this year our gearboxes stopped working, the cause being we hadn’t lubed them since day 3 of build season, and general wear and tear. Needless to say there was a lot of aluminum powder :). There was a mentor from 217 at MSC even though their team was not competing there, he worked tirelessly and missed his lunch break just to help us get them back together and on the field.
I would like to thank team 125 for joining our alliance at the first RIDE, which we ended up winning in three final matches. You guys were allot of fun to work with, and we worked together really well.