FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC®)

FRC Team Growth, Statistics, Records of all Teams & Awards, Playing Field Turnaround

This is a collection of random statistics and facts about the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) that might be useful in team marketing presentations, elevator speeches, etc. Mostly it's just a running experiment in looking at things differently. Excel versions of a variety of takes on FRC historical data have been published for people to pursue their own interests. You are encouraged to take and use this information as you need. Please use the spreadsheets, modify them, combine them, add more data and produce your own interesting factoids.

FRC Team Growth

FRC Team Growth Trends
This data was derived from team competition lists and the FIRST Team Database. These lists do not necessarily follow the FIRST criteria for continuing teams, as that's hard to determine without political insight that isn't documented in the data we have available to us. In these charts team number changes are tracked by the primary educational base (school, 4H, Girl/Boy Scouts, Boys & Girls Clubs, home school, etc.), We choose to categorize a team as new when a particular school plays FRC for the first time, and this rule has been applied from the first unnumbered teams through to the present. FIRST has changed it's definition of what a rookie is over the year's, and has changed team numbers from year-to-year for rationals of their own. We tried to pick one standard that can be applied consistently across the years for discussion purposes. In the end such arbitary decisions affect only a small percentage of teams, so we just wanted a rule that could be applied evenly using only team lists as input.

• Yearly FRC Team Rosters & Summary (, 2.6 MB)
• FRC Team Year-to-Year Comparison (, 3.5 MB) This is a year-to-year comparison of team lists for every year used to identify individual resurrected teams, returning teams and lost teams. It has some odd worksheets summarizing subsets of data depending on what whimsy struck us and what amounts to statistical doodling.

FRC Team Retention

FRC Team Retention
To the left is a table with # of rookies for each year and retention rates for those teams in subsequent years. The row is the year you're looking at (i.e. the row 2006 refers to the 2006 season). Then each column is the number of teams (out of the original # of teams) that participated in that season. So for row 2006, column 2000: then 271 of the 372 teams from the 2000 season also participated in the 2006 season for a retention rate of 72.849%. Note: the list of # of rookie teams is based off registration -- not whether they participated in an event or not, and this data is taken purely from the public FIRST database records of teams, so the early pre-1998 data is a little sparse. Should the need for a more accurate version of this arise we do have more accurate data we've generated from team lists.

To the right is a simpler chart showing overall team retention year-to-year. The numbers include continuing teams as well as teams that return after a hiatus of a year or more.

Here is a look at the age in years of experience of each of the 2010 teams who subsequently dropped out in 2011, as well as the dropouts in 2010 and 2009 for trend comparison. The pie wedges are the % of all dropouts with 1-n years of experience and the actual numbers of teams that dropped out are given.

FRC Team Daily Registration Trends

FRC Team Daily Registration Trends
Plot of FRC team registration day-by-day from Registration opening around October 2 to closing about December 3 (and then on through the events), for the years 2005 through the present with the final totals for the years back to 1992 thrown in for reference.
Registration actually peaks a week or so AFTER registration formally closes each year. Then that peak dwindles off as teams are not able to raise the funding, find the mentors, administration/teacher support flounders, facilities are unavailable, students aren't recruited, or local politics aren't conducive. Teams have dropped out as late as the middle of competition events, so don't count the season's final total until the very end.
In the detailed latter-year plots you can see the flat weekends pretty distinctly, especially the three day Thanksgiving holiday where no one registers.
Open Registration Year-to-Year Comparison (, 132 KB)

Team Longevity

FRC Team Longevity Trends
At the very beginning in 1992, the first year of FIRST, no team had ever played before, so they all started with zero years of experience. As the years passed, teams came and went, a few have been around since that early beginning, others left and returned, and every year we get a great influx of rookie teams, again having zero experience. This chart shows how the average team longevity has climbed slowly from zero back in 1992 to an average 4.3 years of experience per team after the 2011 season. Of course, after new rookies signup in the Fall but before they play, it's roughly one less year experience. :)

FRC Veterans
Another way to look at this is to tally the teams vs. years of experience.

All FRC Teams Past & Present

All FRC Teams That Ever Were (, 3.5 MB)
We've compiled a list of every FRC team that ever was - teams that are no more, teams that have around since the beginning, teams that started this season, teams who last played in 1992, including unnumbered teams from those pre-team number days. Weren't you ever curious just how many teams there really have been? What with all the team numbers FIRST has skipped and never assigned to anybody it can be really hard to tell. You might be surprised at the sponsors and schools that first started your own team. As part of the history we've included the ORIGINAL team names in the main list NOT the present day names. Team names, sponsors, and school changes over the years are recorded on one of the tabs.

• 2065 teams played in 2011
• 3470 unique teams have existed at one time or another as of 2011
• ~20% have morphed team identities - number changes, splits, mergers, siblings.
• ~40% of FRC teams have dropped out. Luckily, many of those lost teams have just moved to FIRST Tech Challenge or another competition such as Battlebots IQ, so they haven't necessarily been lost to the inspiration of engineering.
• 13% of all teams who've dropped out have later returned
• 3 schools have each been known by 4 different names/permanent numbers
• 302 numbers below 3122 (09 rookies) have been skipped over by FIRST and never used by any team
• 257 additional numbers under 3122 were assigned to teams that proceeded to drop out before competing
• 1/3 of all teams have had NASA as a sponsor
• 2024 times NASA has sponsored teams

Random Statistics after the 2010 FRC season:

2010 FRC Teams Come From...

A breakdown by nation, and another that adds US territories and States shows where all our teams come from.

• 14,588 team-years (2011) (28 teams in 1992 plus 25 teams in 1993 plus...)
• 22.7 students per team on average (Brandeis study 2011)
• 25% new students on average per team per year (estimate)
• 6.5 mentors per team average (Brandeis study 2011)
• 5.2 years average mentor experience (Brandeis study 2011)
• ~90,000 HS graduates of the FRC program (1992 through 2011 graduates)
• ~135,000 students directly Inspired by FRC (graduates + those still in HS)
• 50% more FIRST students likely to go to college
• 2x as likely to major in science or engineering
• 3x as likely to major specifically in engineering
  
  
• ~110 Volunteers per Regional
• FIRST salaried employees (2010) ...................... 90
• FIRST employees based at HQ (2010) ................... 70
• FIRST employees based in the field, i.e. Regional Directors (2010) .... 20
• FRC employees (2010) ..................................... 14.5
  
  From FIRST - 2010 FRC Program at a Glance (or 2009 at a Glance)
• Teams .............................................. 1,808
• Students ......................................... 45,000+
• Mentors .......................................... 25,000+
• Other volunteers ............................... 6,600+
• Average students per team ......................25
• Average mentors per team ......................14
• Kickoff (main)...........................................1
• Kickoff (remote).....................................57
• Regional Events .................................... 43
• District/State Events ............................... 8
• Championship ......................................... 1
• Championship teams ............................344
• Countries ...............................................12
• US states ...............................................48
• Canadian provinces ..................................4
• FRC recognition ('09) ............................. 58,000 medallions, 2,753 trophies, 222 banners
• FTC recognition ('09) ............................. 3,780 medallions, 495 trophies
• FLL recognition ('09) ............................. 40,000 medallions, >1000 trophies
• Scholarship providers ...........................136
• Scholarships available ......................... 746 worth close to $12.2 million
• Corporate sponsors ......................... 3,000+
• KOP pneumatic tubing ...........................17 miles
• KOP batteries ........................................13 tons
• KOP wire ..............................................20 miles
• KOP suppliers .......................................75
• KOP material ......................................126 tons
• KOP parts per kit .................................577 (39% donated)
• KOP motors ...................................18,750
• FRC Teams shipped robot crates (09) ...... >1.5 million lbs.
• FRC Teams traveled to/from events (09) ................2.5 million miles
• What it costs FIRST per FRC team (08)..... $13,700 (covered by registration fees and corporate donations)
  
  From FIRST-All Programs (2009 Annual Report)
• Youth participants ......................... 196,000 (ages 6-18)
• Mentors and volunteers ................... 85,000
• Number of volunteer hours ......... 5,715,980
• U.S. States participating ......................... 50
• Countries participating ............................ 51
• Number of robots ................................ 16,374
• Jr. FLL Teams (08) ................................ 1203
• FLL Teams (08) ................................ 13,705
• FTC Teams (09) ................................ 986
• FRC Operating Expenses (09) .................. $25,259,844
• FLL Operating Expenses (09) .................. $3,714,529
• FTC Operating Expenses (09) .................. $1,169,372
• Team Registration fees (all programs 09) .......$15,535,666

FRC Team Awards

Let's start with the mentor Regional Woodie Flowers Finalist Award winners and the Championship WFA winners. Here's a list along with a summary of how many have been awarded and which teams have the best essayists :-)

FRC Woodie Flowers Awards


FRC awards since the competition's inception (9686 or so) are collected in this spreadsheet on a team-by-team basis. It shows how many awards each team has won, how many Regional Finalists there have been, which team(s) have won the most of any particular award, etc. You can use this to tease out more interesting statistics and see how your team matches up against others. Some early awards, 1992-1993 and non-Manchester Regional awards from 1995 & 1996, are missing, so if anyone has any of that information, please send it to us through the "Contact Us" on the left menu. All teams are here through the last season.

FRC Team Awards 1992-present

Here is just an example as of 2010:

Top award winners # Awards - Team - Award 4 ----- 103 ----- Autodesk Inventor Award 10 ---- 192 ----- Autodesk Visualization Award 2 ----- 191 ----- Chairman's Award Winner 4 ----- 71 ------ Championship Winner 6 ----- 190 ----- Creativity 5 ----- 25 ------ Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" 5 ----- 33 ------ Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" 5 ----- 357 ----- Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" 6 ----- 177 ----- Division Champion 6 ----- 141 ----- Engineering Inspiration Award 6 ----- 1305 ---- Engineering Inspiration Award 6 ----- 67 ------ GM Industrial Design 6 ----- 330 ----- GM Industrial Design 8 ----- 1024 ---- Imagery 8 ----- 599 ----- J&J Sportsmanship (Gracious Professionalism) 7 ----- 68 ------ Judges' Award 9 ----- 234 ----- KPC&B Entrepreneurship 8 ----- 67 ------ Leadership in Controls 7 ----- 207 ----- Motorola Quality 3 ----- 358 ----- Outstanding Volunteer Award 7 ----- 27 ------ Regional Chairman's Award 7 ----- 236 ----- Regional Chairman's Award 19 ---- 254 ----- Regional Champion 8 ----- 16 ------ Regional Finalist 9 ----- 48 ------ Safety Award 7 ----- 217 ----- Team Spirit Award 9 ----- 234 ----- Website Design Award 9 ----- 461 ----- Website Design Award 3+1 --- 111 ----- Woodie Flowers Award 3+1 --- 131 ----- Woodie Flowers Award 3+1 --- 188 ----- Woodie Flowers Award

Defunct Awards: #1 Seed Best Offensive Round Best Play of the Day Award Outstanding Defense Incredible Play Most Photogenic Award Featherweight in the Finals Teacher Pioneer Award High Score Championship Honorable Mention Awards: Chairman's Award Finalist Chairman's Award Honorable Mention Compelling Creativity Content Communication Technical Execution Against All Odds Award Delphi "Power to Simplify" Award People's Choice Animation Award Best Defensive Match Best Use of a Human Player Autodesk retired awards: Autodesk Rising Star Visualization Award Autodesk Design your Future Award Autodesk Design your Future Award Honorable Mention Autodesk Excellence in Engineering Creativity and Communications Award Autodesk Excellence in Engineering, Creativity and Communication Award Honorable Mention Autodesk Excellence in Engineering, Creativity and Communication Rising Star Award Autodesk Rising Star Rookie Team Award Autodesk Award for Realization Autodesk Award for Realization Honorable Mention Autodesk Inventor Rising Star Award Autodesk Special Recognition for Distinctive Work in the Area of Character Animation Autodesk Visualization Honorable Mention

Field Turnaround & Scoring

Just some random statistics about field operations, # matches per event, matches per team, average match cycle time, average qualifying/elimination scores. Some of these are quite dependent on volunteer staff experience and availability, as well as, the complexity of the game (penalties, field reset, scoring). Some events have special unique problems to overcome, such as the Israel Regional not being able to use the same communications setup that all the other 2010 regionals use due to military restrictions on the 5 GHz frequency band.

2011 Event Match Cycles & Scores
2010 Event Match Cycles & Scores
2009 Event Match Cycles & Scores
2008 Event Match Cycles & Scores

Just What is Average at an Event?
	2008	2009	2010	2011
# teams	46	49	48	48
# matches	71	71	80	81
Matches per team	9	9	10	10.2
Avg. Match turnaround	6:40	7:21	7:45	7:30
Avg. Qualifying score	36.1	52.4	6	27.9
Avg. Elimination score	48.6	52.8	11	56.7

What About the Best at Championships?
	2008	2009	2010	2011
# teams	340	348	344	352
# teams per Division	85	87	86	88
# matches	100	102	144	147
Matches per team	7	7	10	10
Avg. Match turnaround	5:58	6:13	6:13	6:16
Avg. Qualifying score	67.3	71.4	14.2	68.3
Avg. Einstein score	101.6	72.4	29.3	97.7

How Many Events Does the Average Team Attend?

MultipleEventAttendance.xls (2003-2011)
FRC-EventLists1992-2011.xls

This is a study of the number of teams who attend multiple official FRC events each year.
It does not attempt to track off-season events which would be interesting, but very difficult to cover in an organized sense. The more events we participate in, the more we get out of FIRST, the better our drivers get, and the more worn out our robots become.
The spreadsheet for the past few years looks at this in three different ways:

• All teams and all types of events (Regionals, Districts, Championship)
• Same as above, but excluding teams in the Michigan District experiment (& the year before)
• Just Regionals (excludes Michigan Districts and Championship)

Teams at Multiple Regionals (excluding the Michigan Experiment)
	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
multiple event teams	379	352	437	435	475
single event teams	922	1031	1108	1238	1426
% of all teams	29.13%	25.45%	28.28%	26.00%	25.00%

Teams at Multiple Events (including the Michigan experiment & Championship)
	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
1-event teams	760 (58.4%)	992 (66.1%)	965 (57.5%)	1090 (60.3%)	1262 (61.1%)
2-event teams	352 (27.1%)	352 (23.5%)	462 (27.5%)	478 (26.4%)	559 (27.1%)
3-event teams	172 (13.2%)	142 (9.5%)	206 (12.2%)	203 (11.2%)	199 (9.6%)
4-event teams	17 (1.3%)	14 (.9%)	36 (2.1%)	35 (1.9%)	38 (1.8%)
5-event teams	0	1 (.1%)	8 (.5%)	2 (.1%)	6 (.3%)
6-event teams	0	0	0	0	1 (.05%)

Multi-event Team Success
	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Attend CMP	52.9%	53.6%	58.6%	57.5%	53.7%
Make Elims	71.9%	74.7%	86.5%	88.3%	86.5%
Division Win	91.7%	81.8%	83.3%	91.7%	100%
CMP Win	100%	100%	66.7%	66.7%	100%

At early events no one knows the game, has a drive team experienced in this year's game play, or has all the kinks worked out of their robot design, but in 2010 for instance, by the time Week 5 rolls around almost half the teams competing that week have already played at an earlier event. Of course, that's also the week of the Michigan State Championship where every team has played twice before.

2010 Teams Who'd Played Before
	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5
Regionals	0%	6.7%	17.8%	35.5%	42.1%
Districts	0%	31.3%	96.3%	100%	100%
Combined	0%	10.9%	33.8%	40.1%	49.7%

Robotics Program Growth Cross-Comparison

Just a chart comparing the growth of various robotics programs: Jr. FLL, FLL, FTC, FRC, Vex, Botball, BEST.

Data

Research Data Sources

Data populating these charts and spreadsheets has been culled from multiple sources. If at all possible we tried to have collaborating sources that could be reconciled, validating the results. The best sources are the official FIRST ones of course, but even those come in several forms: online database, website, print and electronic versions of competition documents, press releases. Other sources include news articles, physical possession of team awards, team histories/photos, eye-witness reports, documentary videos, etc. Some sources are given more weight than others depending on the circumstances, for instance news articles can garble facts, memories can deteriorate, but also hard data such as the FIRST database is manually entered by a large number of people and sometimes will not reconcile even against itself.

• FRC Annual Team Rosters: What Events And Teams Are In My Area?
  The team portion of this database is good back through 2001 with partial/spotty records for pre-2001 years on individual teams, BUT ONLY for teams that are still active or have been active within the past three years. The purged team records are still available on our preserved FIRST database archive (see FRC Team Lookup on the left navigation bar). For events it only goes back to 2003, although errors can be found, so again the data should be validated against other sources if at all possible. Also, in some earlier years the database is missing select fields, such as team names or locations.
  
  
• FRC official individual team records also available via: http://frclinks.frclinks.com/team/358 (links courtesy of Pat Fairbank) - just replace the team number at the end with the team you want or through the team rosters link above (but only available for teams active within the past 3 years).
  
  
• The TechnoKats History Project has made available a wonderful collection of old documents and records.
  
  
• FIRST-a-holics has a lot of the Game Manuals from the 1990's.

FIRST has changed criteria over the years, defining when a team is new, continuing, etc. Often the reasoning at the time involved continuing or switching sponsors, primary mentors involved in moving teams from one school to another, all reasons that are hard to uncover when we're restricted to examining raw team databases and original competition lists. That's where personal team member accounts are valuable. Rookie year's in the FIRST Team database no longer reflect when that team number actually first joined or played, but are currently based on how many founding team members have been involved in FRC before. All this just means you have to be careful when using the data that you understand what the data signifies. Be wary of FIRST reports and publications. The trouble with FIRST Annual Reports and marketing brochures is that the data is often published before the year's final talley is in. Errors are usually corrected in later official reports, but brochure errors don't suffer the same scrutiny.

FIRST Official Sources:

• Internet Archive - search for www.usfirst.org
• FIRST Official Results
• Games Year-by-Year - local copies of some FIRST data (team list, awards, game manuals)

FRC Team/history Discussions (on CD)

• All the FRC Teams That Ever Were (2009)
• Historic FIRST Data Wanted (2011)
• Team Homes for Home Schoolers (2011)
• Finding the girls teams (2011)
• An FRC Family Tree (2010)
• Smallest public school to have a team (2011)
• Predicting team startup growth (2009)
• Championship Winners (2008)
• FRC Team #1 (2008)
• Team Names (2006)
• All NASA Teams - 1997 (2005)
• 1 School - 2 Teams (2002)

FRC Team Registration Discussions (on CD)

• 2012 Registration Progress
• 2011 Registration Progress
• 2010 Registration Progress
• 2009 Registration Progress
• 2008 Registration Progress
• 2008 Regional Summary Spreadsheet
• 2006 Registration Progress
• 2005 Registration Progress
• 2004 Registration Progress
• 2001 Registration Progress

FRC Statistics/Records Discussions (on CD)

• 2011 Field Stats
• 2010 Regional Stats
• FIRST Championship History Results (2010/2011)

FIRST sites- FRC Specific Google Search

We employ a custom Google search engine explicitly targeting more than 1700 FRC team, Regional, USFIRST, Bill's Blog, FIRST forums, Chief Delphi, IFI, NI, WPI, and related support websites. One drawback is that Google returns only one or two hits per site, so after you find the sites that have information, you can get a lot more hits by using regular Google with a particular website, e.g., "site:team358.org publicity"