The Best Team(s) to Never Win an Official Event

[Kevin Leonard]

A phenomenal team I met in 2016- Team 4481, the Rembrandts. They had some incredible and ambitious machines in 2015 and 2016, but somehow came up short, losing in the finals at Virginia 2015 and being on the 8th seeded alliance at Tech Valley 2016 against 359.

[Anthony Galea]

In my opinion, 1189 is a team who is going to get their first win very soon. 3x Finalist and MSC SF in 2015, 1 SF in 2016, 2x SF in 2014, Finalist and SF in 2013.

[BotDesigner]

Originally Posted by Thayer McCollum

I'll second that. But for some reason I thought 4499 had won a regional. I guess that shows what I "know" about my friends across town.

With your four RCAs and 2 finalist appearances I think 159 definitely belongs on the Colorado list as well.

[Ginger Power]

All this thread does for me is reinforce how insane 2056's streak was... so many great teams that haven't quite gotten over the hump, while 2056 goes almost 10 years without losing.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by Richard Wallace

Aha! Thank you for the research on that. Now TBA should update the 461 history page.

IIRC, some scorekeepers have not always entered team affiliations for WFFA. And even when they do, TBA sometimes doesn't pick them up. For example, Frank Dressel got the 2006 St. Louis Regional WFFA and the scorekeeper recorded his team number, but it doesn't show up on 931's TBA history page.

Yeah. Also when WFA's and WFFA's change teams it seems a bit gets lost in the move. Example: I knew Allison Phelps née Babcock was a mentor on my old team, 1747 in 2007. I also knew at some point she attained WFFA status. However, I had always assumed said award wasn't given to her outside of her time on 1747, as the award was never mentioned in the three years I was on the team. However, as it turns out, she DID win during the 2007 year (St. Louis Regional), mainly by saving my team from the brink. The only places this information exists is on the Mobius (which I discovered earlier this year) and an obscure CD thread which contains the submission essay.

While WFFA/WFA is awarded to people, not teams, I do think that the team history should be denoted. One would think that such things would be common knowledge in a region, let alone within said team or among people who work with the WFFA in question at several events every year.

[Landonh12]

Gonna plug in 456 here. They're a phenomenal team. They have some of the best volunteers and are always willing to help someone out. We have competed with them several times over the last few years.

They've been finalists plenty of times, and have won 2 off-season events, but sadly have no official wins. We got close with them in 2015 at Bayou, but fell short by 2 points.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

Example: I knew Allison Phelps née Babcock was a mentor on my old team, 1747 in 2007. I also knew at some point she attained WFFA status. However, I had always assumed said award wasn't given to her outside of her time on 1747, as the award was never mentioned in the three years I was on the team. However, as it turns out, she DID win during the 2007 year (St. Louis Regional), mainly by saving my team from the brink. The only places this information exists is on the Mobius (which I discovered earlier this year) and an obscure CD thread which contains the submission essay.

Her win is saved elsewhere too. As well as her Volunteer of the Year award in 2015 w/team 1024.

[Akash Rastogi]

Based on a strong history I'm going to say 2791. Up until very recently my answer would have been 1323.

[lynca]

Texas Teams:

1255 - Blarglefish
2158 - ausTIN CANs
2582 - PantherBots
2881 - Lady Cans
3005 - RoboChargers
3103 - Iron Plaid
3802 - RoboPOP
3847 - Spectrum
3997 - Screaming Chickens

[notmattlythgoe]

Originally Posted by Nate Laverdure

Consider 1885.

They have only missed Championship once since their rookie year in 2006.

They have earned 7 blue banners since 2012, but none of them happen to say "Winner".

Over 33 lifetime events, they have been eliminated 4 times in the finals, 4 times in the semifinals, and 10 times in the quarterfinals.

Nobody can beat these stats.

And on top of that they have two WFFA's. I don't know what witch they upset but man are they cursed.

[ctt956]

Within the North Carolina District:

3196 has yet to receive a blue banner, but they won Rookie All Star in 2010, and had a Dean's List Finalist in 2012. They won the Gracious Professionalism Award in 2016, and their robots aren't bad at all. Definitely deserving of a win IMO.

As honorable mentions, I would throw in 4767 and 3215 as "sleeper teams". With both making eliminations in 2016, they seem to be improving, especially since the district transition.

[TheBoulderite]

Originally Posted by BotDesigner

With your four RCAs and 2 finalist appearances I think 159 definitely belongs on the Colorado list as well.

Agreed.

[JohnSchneider]

Originally Posted by lynca

3847 - Spectrum

Definitely overdue.

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by Monochron

No real presense on here, but I have to call out my Alma Mater, 1102 M'Aiken Magic. Financial reasons (and a focus on their incredible FTC teams) keeps them down to one Regional per year, but from 2012 - 2015 they never seeded outside of the top 8, topping out at 4th and 3rd recently. As to what is keeping them from winning . . . I'm not sure. They haven't been able to seed 1st and it often appears that their strategy is to do so, maybe they don't often compliment other robots in the game.

My mom still mentors 1102 even though I graduated many moons ago. They've dropped FTC entirely for the coming year and are only doing Vex and FRC. Will they invest more in FRC? Only time will tell because they are doing a lot to recruit new mentors. As far as I know now they still only plan to do 1 regional. They definitely have a lot more success with lower cost competitions. They have a record of winning some event in FTC or Vex every year since I was a Freshman in highschool in 08.

[Electronica1]

Originally Posted by ctt956

3196 has yet to receive a blue banner, but they won Rookie All Star in 2010 and got to Einstein in 2012.

3196 did not make it to Einstein in 2012. They were not picked for elims in their division.