The Best Team(s) in need of an event win/

[Caleb Sykes]

In Minnesota, 1816 is probably the most overdue for another win. They haven't won an event since 2006, despite having won an incredible array of awards since then. They have also been regional finalists thrice, in 2009, 2012, and 2014

[IKE]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

I think 461 is leading the pack in this thread.

This thread is a spinoff to discuss teams who are overdue since their last win prior to 2013.

....

I think 280 TNT would be in the running, but I believe 461 has more finalists which I would argue edges them in this case.

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

Definitely team 60 from Arizona! They have been a finalist 5 times in the last 4 years and haven't won the gold since 2011. It's honestly not a matter of if they will win again but when and I think that could be any event they attend. Especially with the drive the current team seems to have as noticed in the recent AZ State champs where they came in with a clone of 987's robot! It didn't perform at 987's level but the effort and potential was definitely there in my opinion.

Though not an official FRC event, team 60 did win the AZ State Championships in 2015!

[jee7s]

For Texas, my absolute "never ever had a win but needs one" pick would be 2881, a Girl Scout team in Austin that has consistently good robots, an awesome image, and all around great people.

A close runner up would be 2587, the DiscoBots in Houston. They haven't had a win since 2009, and they are a consistent finalist who for one reason or another (including 118, 148, 624, and 1477 or some combination thereof) just couldn't quite get the blue banner for the better part of a decade.

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by Peyton Yeung

When your team becomes ubiquitous with the phase "Always a bridesmaid, never the bride"

It got so bad on 40 that every time Thunderstruck played someone would shout out "Sounds like second place!"

[ctt956]

From the NC District, I would say HOTBOTZ, 2640. They haven't won an event since the Palmetto Regional in 2012. However, they seem fairly consistent and did well in 2016, being semifinalists at Guilford County and quarterfinalists at UNC Asheville as well as NC DCMP.

I haven't followed them that closely, but 435 seems good. They are the oldest team in the NC District, and last won in 2013. Their 2016 robot had a cool design. (If anyone who knows is reading this, were those hoses actually functional or just for aesthetics? Either way, they looked great!)

I'll post again if I come up with more...

[Rachel Lim]

I think for California, 696 is an obvious answer to this question:

They last won an event in 2007 at San Diego, but they've won a whole list of other awards since--3 quality, 3 industrial design, 1 excellence in engineering, 1 innovation in control, 1 gracious professionalism, and 1 WFFA, in addition to making finals at IE 2013. They've also been a captain/first pick at every event since 2011, attended IRI in 2013, and build beautiful machines every year. They're also really nice people and always willing to answer questions every time I've talked to them.

(also according to my friends I'm obsessed with symmetrical / powdercoated / color coordinated robots as well as palindrome numbers, so it's hard to get much better than 696)

Other strong contenders:

649: won SVR in 2010, and have made finals at SVR again in 2015 but haven't managed to get another win, despite putting up strong robots each year. In 2016 alone they made semis at both CVR and SVR, won excellence in engineering and imagery, and were finalists at Calgames.

3256: they won Sac their rookie year (2010), then made finals at Sac and SVR 2012. Despite winning Calgames 2015, they haven't been able to win another official event, although they have gotten an impressive number of other awards since their last win: RCA x2, EI x1, dean's list x3, WFFA x1, industrial safety x4, entrepreneurship x4 (including 3 in one year), and finalists x2.



I'm probably missing teams, and I'll come back and add them when I think of more. For norcal in particular, there have been very few unique teams winning regionals, although there is an increasing number of teams challenging that.

In the past 4 years, there have been 3 norcal events per year, coming to 12 events or 36 slots on winning alliances--but there have only been 19 different teams. On captain/1st pick slots it's even more drastic: 8 teams vs 24 slots, and for captain/1st picks for the past 3 years, it's 5 vs 18.

Put another way: from 2013 on, there has only been 1 norcal event that didn't have either 1678 or 254 on the winning alliance. From 2014, that number is zero. They make up for 16 of the 24 winning captains/1st picks since 2013, 14 of 18 from 2014 on. This data graphed (with multiple winners colored):



(they'd probably also say I'm obsessed with streaks. But seriously, this is crazy)


*All stats are for official events only
*The 8 capt/1st pick winners (team (# wins at norcal regionals)) are 1678 (9), 254 (7), 971 (2), 118 (2), 973 (1), 840 (1), 2489 (1), and 3189 (1). The first 5 are winners from 2014-16.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Rachel Lim

I think for California, 696 is an obvious answer to this question:

They last won an event in 2007 at San Diego, but they've won a whole list of other awards since--3 quality, 3 industrial design, 1 excellence in engineering, 1 innovation in control, 1 gracious professionalism, and 1 WFFA, in addition to making finals at IE 2013. They've also been a captain/first pick at every event since 2011, attended IRI in 2013, and build beautiful machines every year. They're also really nice people and always willing to answer questions every time I've talked to them.

Forgot about those guys (actually, I think I remembered, then sat down to write my last post and forgot).

I'd have to go tossup between 980 and 696: 980 has more wins (and finalists), and more recent, but generally builds something tough and scrappy, playing a lot of defense. 696 has more elegant machines and plays a lot of offense. Now if they could just team up together with another good offense robot...

[StAxis]

Originally Posted by MARS_James

I would have but 1902 won 2013 South Florida so they don't qualify based on the rules I said above.

I would agree that we're desperately in need of a win! Hopefully this year. Gunning for it hard.

[AlexanderLuke]

Originally Posted by Rachel Lim

I think for California, 696 is an obvious answer to this question:

They last won an event in 2007 at San Diego, but they've won a whole list of other awards since--3 quality, 3 industrial design, 1 excellence in engineering, 1 innovation in control, 1 gracious professionalism, and 1 WFFA, in addition to making finals at IE 2013. They've also been a captain/first pick at every event since 2011, attended IRI in 2013, and build beautiful machines every year. They're also really nice people and always willing to answer questions every time I've talked to them.

(also according to my friends I'm obsessed with symmetrical / powdercoated / color coordinated robots as well as palindrome numbers, so it's hard to get much better than 696)

Thanks for the shoutout Rachel, its a great boost to our efforts aside from being a wonderful compliment.

Team 696 is working very diligently this year, perhaps more than ever, to bring home a win. A decade is a long time, and our students are determined to change this.

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by Rachel Lim

snip

Good list. I think you're missing one team: 1868 .

You guys build great looking and performing robots every year and have come so close in the past (2012 and 2013) - not to mention all the outreach and work with the community.

Here's hoping you win one in 2017!

[Lil' Lavery]

103 The Cybersonics

They've been to the regional/district finals 10 times in their history. They won the first six regional finals (up to the 2008 New Jersey regional). They've lost the last four (since 2008 Philadelphia). That finals losing streak stretches to 5 if you count the 2011 Curie finals (they also lost the 2003 Curie finals).

[Kevin Leonard]

In New York- 1511 hasn't won an event since 2013 Boston, despite building some excellent machines, and winning a number of well-deserved Chairmans and EI awards.

191 hasn't won an event since FLR 2012.
1551 hasn't won an event since FLR 2010.
3003 hasn't won an event since FLR 2013.

All four teams have had some good robots since then. Part of 191's problem is that they only attend one regional (and the championship).

There are a lot of good, deserving teams in Rochester that win infrequently because of how much parity there this in the area.

[TheBoulderite]

For Colorado, definitely 662. They haven't won a regional since 2004, but have consistently built strong and capable robots that appear in the playoffs since then. I hope to see them win a regional sometime soon.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

In New York- 1511 hasn't won an event since 2013 Boston

They won Curie in 2016