Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I'm going through the FIRST roster trying to find which team was the first to register in my state (It looks like Perpetual Chaos), and stumbled across some pretty sweet team names. Has anyone seen (or been on?) a team with an epic name? I found:
254- The Cheesy Poofs
326- Teamsuperpowermaticultramegasuperlativeawesometast icdelicioushowli-
ngunieagles
442- Redstone Robotics
677- Murphy's Outlaws
702- Bagel Bytes
1415- The Flying Pumpkins
1504- Desperate Penguins
1540- Flaming Chickens
1646- Precision Guesswork
1702- (none)
1875- Purple Haze
1902- Exploding Bacon
2108- Team Awkward Turtle
2499- Super BAMF Awesome Squad
2538- The Plaid Pillagers
2550- Skynet
2655- Flying Platypi
2667- How 'bout dem apples
2880- Finger Puppet Mafia
3114- To be determined
3236- TRIFORCE
3286- The Rocket Surgeons
3469- The Spanish Inquisition
3637- The Daleks
3645- Runtime Error
3738- xx^3 xy^2
3780- Robot Unicorn Attack
3828- 12 Pretty Duckies
4008- Theodore Roosevelt's Disco Haircut
4170- What The FRaC
4277- Thingamajiggers
b

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

1538 The Holy Cows is the best team name.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Personally I like teams with simpler names, like Aces High or Mechanical Mayhem. Chop Shop is another good one.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

3024 "My Favorite Team" is my favorite.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I always enjoyed Team Kamehameha's name. They're 2444.

Props to whoever gets the reference first.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Not FRC but FLL. We had a team in Michigan last year called "[insert team name here]". Yes, complete with the brackets. To go with their name, the team imagery was black on white shirts with the team name - looking kind of like generic groceries.

I guess the story is that the coach was filling in an online form and [insert team name here] was the prompt on the form. One of the kids asked, "Is that our team name now?" And shortly thereafter, they decided it was.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

The two team names that still stick out from the old FVC days: the Suburban Legends and the Vexy Things. (The latter's driver shirts had "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" on the back.)

5018 is apparently going to give Florida a run for its money with "The Droids You're Looking For". (Full disclosure, 5018's captain was one of the kids I mentored a couple years ago. :) )

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

233-The PINK Team
4046-Schroedinger's Dragons (Who's going to open THAT box, I wonder?)
4501: Humans


In FLL, some years ago: The Pretty Pink Princesses of DOOM! (Funnier when you consider that this is a mostly or all boys' team).

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

2056: OP robotics is pretty cool considering there reputation

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

16 BAXTER BOMB SQUAD. ;)

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I think that 343 Metal in Motion Really captures what FRC does. But my favorite team name is 111 Wildstang

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

My favorites are the classics that I am used to hearing, but the Freshmen crack up laughing-
217- The Thunderchickens
254- The Cheesy Poofs
1538- The Holy Cows
etc.
But I also dig the team names that are clever in some way. Here's a local one:
Team 3044- 0xBe4

It took me forever to figure out.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

2468 Appreciate

My favorite

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

3641 Flying Toasters is one of my favorites from the younger generation (3000+)

I really like names with under 3 words.
I really like names that are unique (at least regionally).
I really like names whose mascot is easy to pick up.
Bonus points to teams whose name has easily matched imagery: (Bees using honeycomb, HOT using fire, PINK being pink)...

Overall though, I would tip my hat to The Holy Cows. Black and white* machines look clean and cool and automatically think cows. The cow head with a halo is easy to put together and recognize.

*White is also a great color as a chassis as it is very easy to see stress cracks in welds. It is very unforgiving of poor build quality though. Flat black does a nice job of "hiding" elements.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I have to say, my favorite team name is "Mechanical Mayhem", it just says so much in two words. :ahh:

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

xD

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

This.
It's almost like someone made a joke like "Hey, we're Team 2468, we should be 'Team Appreciate'"- and then they had the guts to actually do it.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

1024 - Kil-A-Bytes

Nice use of your "number" as your "name".

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Locally, Team Titanium (1986) rolls off the tongue pretty well. There's also the Kuh-Nig-Its (1939), as well as somewhat less local, Winnovation (1625)

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Kilroy, team 339, is my personal favorite team name.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

My old team (the new kids changed the name) was the Flow Botz (2823)

3636 General Robotics
Their school mascot is general Grant.

Team 4954 Palindrome Robotics has a cool name

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Team 418 is named Purple Haze too. They're a bit closer to a number that would've made that name a tad punny.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

It took us several months to realize we had 2 - 4 -6 -8. We kept saying twentyfoursixtyeight rather than two four six eight.

We have competed with and against 2467 and 2469 at contest as well.

We had the conversation with both of them about the timing of registering for FRC that year.

I like:
-FRC 16 Baxter Bomb Squad
-FRC 2880 Finger Puppet Mafia - used an online name generator
- FRC 67 - HOT - The Heroes of Tomorrow

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Chicken Bot Pie - 3082
Spudnik - 4360

I'm sure I'll think of more later

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I was at a FLL tournament this past Saturday, and there was a team there that was named "Einstein's Mustache." I think that was the coolest team name there.

3941 Absolute Zero Electricity (as in 0 Kelvin. The name name of our bot and the freezing point in Kelvins)

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I like 68's original name before it had to be changed due to 9/11

Truck Town Terror

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Team 668 - The Apes of Wrath.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

There was an FLL team last year called the Knights of the Rectangular Table.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

[SOAP BOX]

I didn't realize that a team was named "The Spanish Inquisition." That is a terrible name. I hope if anyone from that team is reading this they seriously consider naming their team after something that doesn't involve discrimination, persecution, theft, censorship, and/or execution.

[/SOAP BOX]

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Maybe they're just Monty Python fans.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

There are definitely better ways of referencing Monty Python if that's the objective.

My favorite team name is team 2102, paradox. Their mascot is a parrot/ox, and it makes me happy

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

4008- Theodore Roosevelt's Disco Haircut is definitely my favorite.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

The inquisition killed, on average, roughly half as many people annually as the United States executes. Would you object to a team's naming itself "Team America"?

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

You're taking that COMPLETELY out of context, and in a very irrational way.

People executed in the US got there as a result of the due process of law, laws created by a publicly elected body, and only for very serious and heinous crimes.

The inquisition executed people for their beliefs, on top of enforcing incredibly repressive laws.

I would not object to a team naming itself "Team America" because of the significant moral difference.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Nah, but I would object to a team named "Team Death Penalty" or "Team Execution of US Inmates". There's a huge difference between a name directly referring to a moral atrocity and a name referring to an entire nation which also does do some morally questionable acts. Is it really that hard to understand his point?

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Well, I guess I'll bite. Sorry for being a few days late to the reply.

Your main argument is that the American death penalty is more morally acceptable than the executions committed by the Spanish Inquisition. If I've misinterpreted, please correct me. I'll attempt to disprove this argument.

Firstly, it is near sophistry to claim that your moral lens is any more in focus that the lens used by the Spanish priests. Keep in mind that your view of who should or should be put to death has indubitably been colored by your culture, which, I presume, is that of some region of the United States. Personally, I believe that capital punishment in general is a great moral wrong, that ultimately humanity relies on human compassion to advance, and that putting a criminal to death is the very nadir of what the justice should be: rehabilitation, not punishment. I am certainly not alone in this view; many developed countries in the world not only have abolished the death penalty within their jurisdictions, but have also centered their prison systems on reforming criminals (as opposed to the system of castigation used commonly in America), to great effect.

However, far be it from me to say that my moral standards are better than yours. Who is to say what is right, other than those who follow conscience, and those others who follow precedent? And far be it from you to say that your code of ethics has any advantage over that of the Inquisitors.

And so I arrive at the second part of your argument. You claim, denotatively, that the Inquisition executed people for their beliefs, and that they enforced incredibly repressive laws. Your connotations, therefore, are that the United States punishes people purely for reasons outside of religious belief, that it does not enforce incredibly repressive laws. Again, correct me if I am mistaken. I have two counterarguments to this.

Firstly, let us frame ourselves in the perspective of an Inquisitor. At the time, it was the belief of devout Catholics that only devout Catholics, absolved of sin, could pass into heaven. Everybody else was destined for eternal torment in hell. (Of course I am simplifying quite a bit. I do not believe that expanding on 16th-century Catholic beliefs will change my argument. If you believe otherwise, please refute this claim.) From that view, then, it is easy to see why the Inquisition, whose nominal goal was to ensure that those non-Catholics who had converted to Catholicism stayed faithful to the orthodoxy, employed harsh tactics to do so. After all, if a bit of earthly punishment were the difference between heaven and hell, it would surely be justifiable to strongly enforce religious orthodoxy on Earth in order to save the souls of would-be sinners. To the Inquisition (all of whose members were raised not in the culture of the modern United States, but that of medieval Spain), it would have been a great moral wrongdoing to not punish those who strayed from strict Catholicism. This is further evidenced by the fact that those condemned to burning were allowed to repent their sins before God; if they did so (which, in Catholicism, would let them avoid hell), they were killed mercifully by asphyxiation before their bodies were burned.

Secondly, I'd argue that our modern world is not yet at a place where we don't "execute people for their beliefs", nor "enforce incredibly repressive laws". One only has to look at post-9/11 America to see state-sponsored religious persecution abound. There are many examples (I'd be happy to elaborate if you'd like), but a significant recent instance was the death of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen killed in a drone strike in Yemen. His only crime was that his father was part of al-Qaeda.

Your argument is slightly better, though still somewhat misleading. I can see your general point, but I'll take you task on one of your specifics, namely that the "Spanish Inquisition" refers directly "to a moral atrocity". The Spanish Inquisition was more formally known (in English) as the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, a name which pretty accurately describes them: a tribunal that investigates ("inquires") questions of adherence to religious orthodoxy. As to their methods, and how morally questionable they were, I've already addressed that above; you may, of course, find fault with my logic. But until someone does so, I'll simply say, quod erat demonstrandum.


tl;dr: Rock on, 3469.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

If you believe that any capital punishment is immoral, then why do you approve of the name "The Spanish Inquisition" at all? Especially having acknowledged that the Inquisition did indeed execute people.

I acknowledge that the US Government has not always acted in perfect moral authority. I contend that any person or institution should be judged on the sum of their actions, and the intentions of their actions, as one would be very hard-pressed to find anyone or anything that is completely free of mistakes or lapses in judgement.

I will point out that your argument fails one key litmus test (IMO anyway): beliefs do not materially affect your peers, actions do materially affect your peers. An example full of hyperbole (maybe): there is a very clear line between believing that murder is okay, and actually murdering someone. This is the key difference IMO.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Can that be moved to PMs please? I'd hate to see this thread be closed.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

2 4 6 8 Team Appreciate!

They're probably the only 4 digit team that says every individual interger in their number.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I'm a fan of some of our local teams:

FTC 7655 "The Q is Silqent."

FTC 4140 "Fish in the Boat"

FLL has some good ones too. I once saw a team with the name "Maybe NXT Year."

In FRC, I'll join the masses in my appreciation of Team 2468 for their best use of a team number.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I'll simply concede the argument.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

SWAT/S.W.A.T. is apparently a pretty good name because there is/has been at least 7 teams that have decided to go with it.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Titanium is insane. Just watch the videos they post each year. Mucho respect.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I do like Mechanical Mayhem, but another one of my favorites is The Hedgehogs - mainly because one of the members carried around a giant stuffed hedgehog last season.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Oh my god, there's a team Robot Unicorn Attack? I'm in love.

We are also fans of robots and unicorns.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Not to be a bit biased but...Texas teams seem to have really ringing names.

Robonauts
Robowranglers
Texas Torque
Texplosion
Spectrum

A lot of these teams also have very crisp and classy logos :).

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

+1 for 1986 Team Titanium. +1 for 16 The (Baxter) Bomb Squad.

Maybe I am just a geek, but I've always liked 229 Division by Zero.

And oh, yeah, back to the OP -- I was there when 931 picked the name Perpetual Chaos. Still my all time favorite. :]

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Like 1787: The Flying Circuits

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Team 997-Spartan Robotics

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I'm sure 425, 487, 834, 971, 1340, 1353, 1490, 1503, 1858, 2014, 2141, 2414, 2432, 2441, 2518, 2976, 2989, 3012, 3041, 3062, 3512, 3544, 3613, 3648, 3762, 3884, 4029, 4102, 4357, 4471, 4639, 4668, 4687, 4740, 4781, 4915, 4942, 4992, 5045, 5048, and 5288 would agree.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I liked a new name I saw this year
Breaking Bot

I have always been partial to the Bomb Squad
or in the old days the Baxter Bomb Squad

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Im going to agree that texas has some nice names that have some awesome logos. Team 2468, Team Appreciate, 1296 Full Metal Jackets, 2587 Discobots, 3310 Blackhawk,4410 TriKzR4Kidz, 3370 Aftershock. But Mechatronics, and Simbotics. But Stark Industries has to be my favorite!!!

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I was looking at the roster of teams I made for the NC Regional last year, and there were some pretty awesome names on there...

Triple Strange (1533)
The Hitchhikers (2059)
The Flying Platypi (2655)
Team SPORK (3196)
Hawktimus Prime (3229)
Team PyroTech (3459)
YETI (3506)
Elemental Dragons (3680)

Hawktimus Prime is probably one of my favorites.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Also, at Inland Empire last year there was a rookie team that was set up in the pit next to us, 4736. Their team name was unofficially "The Slumberjacks" and they all wore pajamas to the regional. I'm kind of upset that they decided not to be a team anymore, that kind of imagery is great.

I wish team 312- Heatwave would make a comeback.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

3293 "Otterbots" from Fergus Falls, MN

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I think 1415- The Flying Pumpkins. Reminds me of pumpkin chucking.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Best FLL name I have seen while judging a competition a few years ago was "The Flying Coconuts". They handed out buttons that had a picture of a coconut and glued feathers on each one.

As for FRC, I don't have any favorite names, but I agree with a lot of the names already said as being pretty sweet.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

you have to be somewhat old to remember back when M'Aiken Magic was consistently at championship but I loved that team name. Aiken being the city that the team was from, it was by far the most creative name I knew and I was lucky enough to be a part of the team.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

OURS

In seriousness, I'd consider it a toss up between Truck Town Thunder and Baxter Bomb Squad. They just seem to roll off the tongue.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I always loved seeing their wizard!

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Some that stick in my mind from FTC are:
Say What?
Fish In The Boat
Einstein's Daughters

From FFL:
The Botterflies (love to see male coaches in 2-2s)
Lego Maniacs
Lego My Robo

From FRC:
Aluminium Assault
M'Aikin Magic
Metal in Motion (somewhat partial to this one and love the the team number is (3+4)^3)

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I personally like " Easy as Pi" and the "GryffinGear"

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

I am a big fan of Cougars Gone Wired.

Re: Best FIRST Team Name?
 

Tom, is that you?