I remember there being a thread like this last year that was pretty interesting, so I figured I’d make one for 2013. Who were the best 3 robots in your state (or province) this year? Here’s what I have for NH:
3467: 3 disk auto, 4-6 reliable cycles, and a 15 second 30 point climber that has only fallen once (During IRI). This awesome robot went to quarterfinals at GSR, won Pine Tree, quarterfinals on Archimedes, won Battlecry, and semi finals at IRI. What a season for such a young team.
1519: The perennial New England powerhouse did it again in 2013. A full court shooter and 10 point hang led them to Semi finals at GSR and a victory in North Carolina. They then joined 33 and 469 as Archimedes champs, and fell one victory short of a championship. They then were finalists at Battlecry and won Mayhem in Merrimack.
1922: Although they weren’t able to get past the quarterfinals, Oz-Ram was one of the best cyclers in New Hampshire. Another quality bot from an awesome team.
So what about your state? (Or province)
I’m going to leave this thread here as it was about the top three teams from you’re area/state. It would also be nice to here more about other teams, because you can never learn about enough about FRC teams.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116116&highlight=Powerhouse
For Michigan (in my own opinion)
33: Very effective floor pickup, 7 disk auton, 10pt hang.
469: Centerline Auton, effective floor pickup, 10pt hang. Capabilities to FCS
67: Very accurate FCS, effective cycler if needed, 30pt or 10pt hang (30pt can dump)
The only downside to 67 is that they can be blocked easily when Full Court Shooting.
That’s like my dream alliance. If competitions allowed for 4 team alliances (like some off-season ones do), I would like to add 2337. Their floor pickup is good, their shooting is good, and their blocker is very powerful against short and tall Full Court Shooters.
3539 and 2054 were also pretty good cyclers and 7-point auton-ers.
But for a top 3, it’s 33, 67, and 469 for me.
The top three bots in Minnesota:
#1: 2052 - The best cycler in Minnesota, they competed at Lake Superior, 10K Lakes, Championships, and the MN State tournament. They competed in the elimination matches at all of their events, winning Lake Superior, 10K Lakes and the MN State Tournament.
#2: 2169 - Arguably the best FCS in the world, when it is working. They competed at Northern Lights, the Colorado Regional, Championships and the MN State Tournament. They competed in elmination matches at all of their events, winning Northern Lights and the Colorado Regional. They also advanced the farthest at Championships a MN team has ever reached - alliance captain of a finalist on Galileo.
#3: 3313 - The bucket innovator. Team 3313 increased their social media presence this year by leaps and bounds. I would say Team 3313 is one of the lead innovators in Minnesota with their social media advances. Through this they were able to post videos on how their robot worked - including posting a video on how well a simple HomeDepot bucket can be used as a frisbee collector/sorter. This influenced many robot designs throughout the world, while it can be argued that they didn’t come up with the idea originally, they certainly marketed it. 3313 many not have won any events themselves but many event-winning robots used the “bucket-design” as marketed by 3313.
Honorable Mention: 2175 - The Fighting Calculators
California (tough, tough decision):
#1 Team 254 Cheezy Poofs: Fastest level 3 climb in the world, good floor pickup and shooter. Overall great robot.
#2 Team 1538 Holy Cows: Daisy Thunder was incredible. Good performance at San Diego and great performance at Inland Empire and outstanding performance at Championships.
#3 Team 1717 D’Penguineers: Quick in-perimeter floor pickup, ability to shoot full court, amazing targeting, innovator in control.
If I could pick a fourth, I would definitely say 3476 Code Orange because, I mean, they were on Einstein, great floor pickup, great autonomous, great targeting, you could arguably put them at #2, I admit some bias there.
In Louisiana…
- 3753, consistant cycler, 10 pt hang
- 2992, 1 point dump, 30 pt climb+ dump
- 3606, consistant 30 pt climb
Massachusetts:
126: Amazing cycler with buzzer beater hang.
190: Climb and dump robot with a 3 disk autonomous that defends for half the match before going to climb.
125: Great cycler, awesome blocking mechanism, buzzer beater hang, and a floor pickup (though rarely used for more than their 4/5 disk autonomous).
1425 is from Oregon. 
There were no good robots in our state.
In our province however, I’d have to say 1114*, 2056*, and 1310.
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3-4 cycles, 50 point climb consistanly. #1 seed at IRI.
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One of (if not the best) floor pickup robot in the world. If there are disks on the ground, they won’t be there for long. Very consistant 7 disk auto. #2 seed at IRI.
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Another fantastic floor loader that was very good at sweeping. Another reliable 7 disk, but their full court ability was their least famous attribute that makes them so good. #3 seed at IRI.
*1114 over 2056 you ask? Well 2056 made a robot primarily to win regionals. Their stellar floor pickup gave them ridiculous AP, which seeded them first at every regional they attended. They had the control in their hands at every regional they attended. 1114 made a robot to do well at the championship. They proved this by being the overall #1 pick on Galileo.
1114’s higher poing ceiling gives them the edge, but both machines were constantly pushing each other, and it really is too close to call.
For New Jersey
2590 - Amazing ground pickup and autonomous, won two events, and a chairmans award.
1676 - Very accurate cycler, won a district and an EI at MAR champs, performed very well at IRI
303 - Great FCS, while struggling in MAR play, won Newton and almost made it to Einstein finals.
New York produced many good teams this year, and the top 3 are well deserving.
#20, The Rocketeers
Not only the top NY team of the year, but also the top NY team - end of sentence. Think of it like this: they were the only New York team selected for IRI. They had a great machine this year and they shown it with impressive wins, including a 15-0-0 record at the Connecticut Regional, shooting less than 100 points in only 2 of those 15 matches.
#2791, Shaker Robotics.
An overall impressive robot this year. While I could give this spot to about 10 other teams, Shaker Robotics has to be mentioned. They played impressivly at WPI, earning top spot and picking team 20. So even though they just got finalist, if you make it first seed and pick the overall best NY team, then you are getting the second overall NY team by golly.
#3003, TAN(X)
Again, I could give this spot to so many teams, but I want to specifically highlight 3003. They won the most difficult FLR to date, played solidly at Buckeye and was ranked 34th in Archemedies with a 5-3 record. Still need more proof? They went 24-14-0 this year. Their total record from 2009 to 2012 was 18-25-2. Yes, they won more matches in 2013 than they had in their previous 4 years combined. Let’s hope they can keep it up.
It is also really important to note that Shaker played weeks 1 and 2 due to proximity to GSR and WPI. I think that if they had even another week or so to develop and iterate their systems, we would have seen them play at Champs.
No love for 3015?
That’s a very impressive turnaround, it’s always see that sort of thing to happen.
Curious if 3003 could give any insight into why they did so much better.
Oh 3015 is one of those teams you can sub in for the second or third place they were exceptional this year and have been for a few years now - but 3015 didn’t win an event this year where 3003 did, so for best team of 2013 goes to teams that win events. And my reasoning for having Shaker at 2 regardless of not winning an event was because at BAE they lost to the eventual world champion 610.
These are just my thoughts, you really can rank the second or third robot to whatever you want this year. The only absolute for NY is that Team 20 was by far the best as they usually are.
In Missouri for Ultimate Ascent:
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1986- 30pt climb, amazing cycler, and 7 point auto with a record of 57-6-0
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3284- 10pt climb, good cycler, and amazing defense!!! Record of 31-19-0
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1806- 40pt climb, amazing cycler, and FCS! Record of 33-9-0
If by usually, you mean for the second or third time in 22 seasons :P.
I also haven’t seen the Clarkson twins, 229/4124 mentioned for NY yet. They won at GSR with 610 and put up some really high scores in Boston. It was a shame that 4124 was not selected in Curie. These guys and gals also did it all on an extremely limited budget and almost exclusively college students as mentors.
I agree, I believe that they were two of the best cyclers in NY. And who could forget all those talons???
EDIT: Ironically, this was my 229th post.
If you’ll notice I said state or province twice in my post just for our friends in the north. Although I guess I should also say or country for Israel, Mexico and other countries.
The top 3 robots in Connecticut in my opinion would have to be in no particular order:
2168 - Solid 3 disk autonomous, great drivetrain, (as well as a skilled driver who knows how to use its advantages) very fast cycler, and a reliable hang, an all around superb robot they’re definitely someone to watch out for in the next years especially as districts roll around.
177 - Again a great 3 disc autonomous as well as a reliable climber, however what really made the Bobcats such a lethal team was their ability to cycle with such accuracy that you don’t find in some other tall bots, but they could also full court shooter with extremely high precision when they needed to as well. Not to mention that I can say through experience that they are a very gracious team to work with as we played with them in eliminations of one of our offseason events.
230 - This team has consistently built great robots that are always a threat to be contended with, they have a great 3 disc autonomous, are a phenomenal cycler, could block full court shooters (which unfortunately we had to run into a few times:( ), had a 20 point climb which was rare in other robots. They also use a Mecanum drive train, which even though Mecanum receives a lot of bad rep they were able to use it to their advantages which gave them a whole new side to be lethal with.