# What is match13?

Some background and thoughts

Site · Sep 27, 2026 · Connor

match13, in one way or another, started as three different apps. The first, chronologically, was the 581 Scouting App ([whitepaper available here](https://www.team581.com/resources)). The second was a local model development and benchmarking suite that I started work on about 1.5 years ago. It made it very efficient to develop models for basically anything FRC, from defense analysis to xP-like models to robot reliability estimation, and it has a lot of tooling for tuning these models and preventing overfitting. The final one was a project started about a year ago, called Benchmark, that I shelved because I didn't like how it felt.

![The Benchmark home page: a dashed wordmark over a team search box, on black.](https://www.match13.com/blog/what-is-match13/benchmark.webp)

I learned a lot about how to architect a project like this, but I personally prefer the vibe of match13 over the scary, IBM-like branding of Benchmark.

match13 has a few goals. The first is to be the most efficient place to answer pretty much any data-related FRC question you have. From “What are the odds we make DCMP?” to “What chance does Hopper have on Einstein?” to “What would have happened if we had just hit that one last bonus RP?”, the goal is to give you the best estimate possible.

The secondary goal is to be a place where this type of analysis is fun and aesthetically satisfying. In high school I was very drawn to the way 538 conveyed data in an eloquent and pretty way without compromising on the depth of what it was trying to say. Longer term, I hope to provide a similar perspective on data analysis and to show interesting things I find via this blog.

The tertiary goal is just to make cool things that hopefully others also find cool. I have some projects cooking that I am very excited to share. Some are cool because they are insightful or novel math, and some are cool just because they're fun.

match13 drew heavy inspiration from many sources, most obviously [Statbotics](https://www.statbotics.io). Without Abhijit's work on Statbotics and EPA, this app presumably would not exist. It really pushed the community forward and defined a lot of the core features of this app. Both Statbotics and match13 also clearly drew heavily from the design (and data) of [The Blue Alliance](https://www.thebluealliance.com). TBA is the true backbone of all of the community's data efforts. I don't know why, but I view m13 as just TBA with [sunglasses on](https://www.match13.com/blog/what-is-match13/sunglasses.webp).

Circling back to the first goal: the aim is to answer almost any data question you could have. So some of the best feedback I can get is when you run into a question you can't answer with anything on here, but feel like it might be possible to. Right now the layout and feature set come from how I am wired to think about this stuff, but I want to know how you think it should feel and what it should show.

I appreciate all the feedback the site has gotten since launch. The usage numbers have far surpassed my expectations, especially in the offseason. By the way, the skier on the homepage is named Monte.

—Connor

[Every post](https://www.match13.com/blog)

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