[Brian Maher]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

Winning feels good and can often bootstrap future success, so in both cases I'd personally choose "winning".

But from the outside looking in, if you were to ask me which is a "more impressive" accomplishment, I'd probably go with the #4 seed in both cases. I have seen many #1 seeded alliances where the last robot makes significant contributions; I have seen relatively few #1 seeded alliances where the last robot would not have been replaceable without a loss in effectiveness by one or more of the other 21 robots that had picked or been picked before it.

For this reason, I am a BIG fan of a district points system. Winning the tournament as a third robot is worth something, sure...but consistently seeding high is worth just as much or more. If a #4 seed was worth more qualifying points than a last pick blue banner, then I would change my answer to the original question (at the Regional/District level).

This is one of the many benefits of the District system. At the 2014 Clifton District Event, Team 1257 was picked in the second round by the #2 alliance and we won the event. We never felt like we didn't deserve a blue banner because we had a really cohesive alliance.
The win was an inspiration. We had a taste of success and wanted more. We made extensive improvements to our robot and pushed to earn enough District Points to qualify for MAR Championship. While we didn't get picked at our second district, we ended up as the #2 Alliance Captain at MAR Champs. We lost in quarters to the winning alliance, but the success we found in 2014 motivated us to improve our team as much as possible for 2015.
In order to reproduce our success, we put a lot of effort into increasing our resources, improving our design and fabrication process, and improving our business program. This season was our first season ever that we were picked at both our District Events (the #7 alliance captain at Mount Olive, and the second pick of the Finalist #2 alliance at North Brunswick). This year was our best yet, and it was largely inspired by that win at Clifton.
TL;DR We've found that success breeds success, and that can begin with an event win as a late pick.