So being a one man team is kind of tough, but how big of a disadvantage really is it? It does have a few advantages like you won’t argue with anybody over design decisions, and you can always work on your robot if you keep it at home (like me). However, you don’t get a whole lot of input on design decisions, and you have to do everything by yourself, including auton, so how common is it for 1 person teams to come out on top in the largest vex competition?
Input is a big thing. You as a person think differently than others, and so you may have a great design for one part of the robot, but someone else may have an op design for another part (which I find pretty disadvantageous). If you work everyday on the robot, whether it be code, CAD, building, drawing, literally anything to do with the robot) and do your best, you should do well.
It might take some time, but it’s not impossible. It’d be pretty cool to see that.
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off-hand, i can think of 1103… he came the closest to winning worlds as an one-man team.
but the real question is - how much of an one-man team are you? i mean… i can imagine you doing all the work in the building and programming and driving.
But is there any additional help you will be getting for scouting, etc?
it makes a big difference.
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I pretty much do everything (i’ve been a 1 man team since ITZ), but occasionally I will get help with scouting. I usually don’t have a problem with that though because I look for teams from the very beginning and memorize or write down teams to look out for. I know you’ve been involved with Vex for a long time so does that mean that no 1 man team, at least in a very long time has won worlds?
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Last year my team was pretty much a one man team lol
My parters didn’t do much at all and there were only three of us, but in the end our robot was the best on the field out of our school
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I pretty much do robotics everyday because I’m in 8th grade (but I compete in HS). However I try to get input from lots of people on discord which is sometimes worse than face to face interactions, but it can be better because when you get Input from people who have had very different experiences than you and been taught in a different way than you as opposed to your teammates, it can help you grow a lot.
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I agree. Our team was fairly independent when it came to design. Fortunately this year I’m on a team where all of us are pretty experienced, and it’s made the difference seeing as we already qualified for state.
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Have you found that you are a lot more, or less productive on an actual team? I don’t remember what being on a team was like lol.
It is possible to do very well as an one-man team.
but i would strongly suggest that you should try to get more help during competitions.
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ALOT MORE PRODUCTIVE
We not only had our design fairly finalized st the end of the first day, but about two weeks after that our robot was finished building and only needed tweaking. Also, it gives me the chance to specialize in something instead of doing literally everything from base design to coding.
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Maybe more multiple person teams win than one man teams because there are just less one man teams 
I’m also a one man team so I’m interested.
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Never knew that 1 man teams existed before today
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like i always say. if there is a will theres a way
Well… there is a lot that is happening in a big scale competition. And it is not about the ability of the one-man team or whether there is a will to do well… it is just a simple case of not being able to split yourself up physically to do all the necessary.
Yes… you can rely a bit on the forum, social media or discord to do a bit of scouting, but the main bulk will still need to be done during the competition itself.
And if we are talking about worlds, trust me - there are many teams out there that you will not have heard or seen before… but that does not mean they are not good enough.
And even simple thing like making sure someone is at the pit area to greet the judges (while the one-man team is at the practice field or away for scouting).
So yes, one-man team will still need additional help during competition… especially if the intention is to do well in major competitions.
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I’ve tried to be a 1-man team at competitions, and it really sucks. I had to get a little help from a friend from a nearby team for scouting, but I ended up going with my original plan. You can only stretch yourself so thin.
I remember talking about this subject a while back, so I found those older posts. I’d suggest reading the thread these came from, as it is a decent thread with a couple of different perspectives.
Other Threads that are useful
And there’s This thread.
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This is kind of a bad situation for you to be in… It’s probably not very common, but I have no doubt that it has happened. I present to you The Pros and Cons of a One Man Robotics Band:
Pros:
- As you said, nobody to argue with
- If you don’t like an idea, you have no team to counter your argument
- You will most likely be given advice by your sister teams/mentors/coaches, so consultation shouldn’t be too big of an issue
- You can go your own pace and not have to wait on/catch up to teammates
Cons: - If you want to go to worlds, you need a good auton, notebook, robot, skills, optionally online challenges, you’re doing that all on your own
- You have to come up with all of your own designs and document all of them clearly, which takes up a significant amount of time that could be spent building/programming/driving
- You have to decide with how you are going to make a decent auton with no one building or documenting
- Nobody is going to be scouting at competitions unless you take it upon yourself to do that, if not, you will have no idea what you are up against/with, what auton/strategy to use, etc., etc.
I truly am not trying to dog on you, but I’m not going to lie either and say that it won’t be hard. This is kind of cheesy, but if there’s a will there’s a way. You can do it, bro, kudos to you for trying to figure this out instead of outright quitting, that’s dedication.
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It’s not quite one man but 86868 was a 2 man team and won worlds
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Perhaps winning or not winning worlds is a consideration for you. Of the 20,000 teams, two will win worlds. So, hopefully, you’ll take away more from your robotics experience even if you don’t win worlds. If you do go on to be an engineer - nearly nothing is made with a team of one. Engineering projects are large and complex. A key aspect of engineering is the ability to work within a team, compromise, communicate, be patient, and benefit from the diversity of thought. You’re not really going to get those benefits by being on a one-person team. And, as this post is showing, you’re probably not going to win worlds either. So why not try to bring some teammates on and learn to benefit from the knowledge and work of others?
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I gotta put my money down on this response. A one man team may be easier to manage but it is by no means practical. Engineering demands so much that succeeding on your own is nearly impossible. VEX may be a fun platform but it has so many rules and restrictions to the point that not much engineering can be applied, making it much easier to do as a solo job. You won’t really realize how essential a team of people is until you get to college-level projects, so learning how to become a good team member in VEX holds much more value than winning worlds as a 1 man team.
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My take is this year’s game may be, one of the most, if not the most strategic game I have seen in all of my years (and I go back before it was even VEX), I think a one-man team would be at its greatest disadvantage during a match as that one person would have to drive, stack, and at the same time keep track of who has what cubes for the end game when teams are scoring and de-scoring the towers.
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