[Billfred]

I'd personally argue that 1902 should also be on any dumper list. 1902 was smooth and reliable through all of UCF, pretty much guaranteeing that their alliance would win autonomous, especially when paired with a good autonomous shooter. I wish I could've seen them paired with 233 on Archimedes.

That said, I'll throw out a few oddball awards...

Best robot I never really got to see up close and personal: 25. Granted, I could probably have spent all three days in Atlanta looking at this thing and it still wouldn't be enough.

Best robot to have my signature upon it: 233. I inspected it at UCF (hence the signature), and it really is a beautiful machine, one of those robots that make you say "Dang, I wish they didn't need bumpers for all the defense they take." Simply amazing to look at, and the documentation they have on hand to help the inspectors is something that I almost wish were required for everyone.

Best robot never to change a bit: FVC 4. (Didn't see that one coming, did you?) 4 was one of the relatively rare three-eventers in FVC this year, attending Orangeburg, Duluth, and the Championship. During the whole season, which saw many teams rebuild their whole robots from the ground up between events, 4 kept it simple: Grab all the balls from an autoloader, score them in a corner goal, repeat. If they weren't stopped, it was deadly.

Best use of items commonly found in a recycling bin: 1139. Oh, how I wish my team had the weight to add a powered Powerade bottle at Palmetto!

Best screw-up: 233 again. When your robot won't spin up the shooter wheel unless there's a ball ready to shoot, you know you've got a good arrangement.

Best speed trap assistant: 342. The refs asked for us to test their muzzle velocity at Florida, and they tested a little hot. With one twist of a potentiometer on the robot, they shot more balls and tested fine, saving us from having to hunt them down again. A beautiful idea to me.

If I think of more, I'll post again.