Who's the best team not in Atlanta in 2008?

[Mark Holschuh]

I'll nominate Team 1730, Team Driven. If memory serves me right, they were the #1 seed at Wisconsin and they deserved it. An excellent team with a great robot.

[Corey Balint]

272 is incredible and could easily be one of the top 3 picks in any division (that means they are a top 6 robot on any division assuming the top 3 are robots that many consider to be the top bots). They are always up there every year but they always go unnoticed nationally.

[AcesPease]

Originally Posted by T3_1565

I think from a Canadian point of view, and only judging by the two events I went to, I'm going to give this to 188, unforntaly they had some break downs every now and then, but for how simple there machine was for ball pickup, it worked really well!

Played against them. Very smart drivers. They got the most out of their bot every round.

[Josh Drake]

Originally Posted by Martijn

I'm going to vote for 1771.. they picked up the ball effectively with a huge suction cup, and then shot it over the overpass with a plunger knocking it out from the grip of the suction cup (kinda 1114-like). go check them out on the blue alliance.. their robot is really quite impressive..

I have to agree with 1771. When we were scouting for Peachtree and saw a picture of their robot, my first thought was "that thing will never work." Boy I was wrong During a team meeting, after we got back from Peachtree, we were discussing other teams robots, and the comment came up about how affective 1771 was. I mentioned to our team that 1771 would not be going to the nationals, and you should have seen the jaws drop. I think the students realized how lucky they were to get to compete in two regionals and get the shot at nationals. Good luck next year guys. We'll keep a look out for you in the ATL, and I love the video you put together

[sdcantrell56]

Drake thank you so much. That means so much coming from you guys since ya'll were so awesome. We were pretty devastated that we weren't going to get to go but somehow it all worked out. I can't wait to compete again. I'll definitely keep an eye out for you guys. You were awesome.

[T3_1565]

Originally Posted by AcesPease

Played against them. Very smart drivers. They got the most out of their bot every round.

agreed! we played with and against them, a few times, definatly a smart bunch on that team lol. It dissapointed me that we never saw you guys on the feild ever (played with or against) because you guys were pretty good as well!

[JesseK]

I vote 1731. I've seen these guys for the last few years and not only are their designs successful, they're also unique. They definitely built a world-class bot this year and agree they helped carry more than their load in many of their matches from what I saw.

Last year's design really pushed the limits of engineering, and I'm glad to see it in the RackNRoll book.

[Tim Baird]

Originally Posted by Billfred

Who, in your opinion and by your method of measurement, are the best teams not attending the 2008 Championship Event?

125 has a pretty nasty hurdler this year, easily hitting 15 feet high at times.

[AcesPease]

Originally Posted by Tim Baird

125 has a pretty nasty hurdler this year, easily hitting 15 feet high at times.

We'll have to watch for them at Beantown.

[Josh Drake]

I guess Martijn and myself will have to change our answers. Looks like 1771 will be playing in Archimedes. I'll have to go will Billfred and say 342. If we had to redo this season's bot, my vote would be a "scoop and shoot" design like theirs. Might be bias b/c I'm a Summerville grad, and on 343.

[hipsterjr]

Thanks to everyone for mentioning us. This was probably our best year ever, but the cards just didn't fall into place . I had a great time in Atlanta last year and would have loved to end my senior season their. Good luck to all the teams going

PS to 1319 and 343: I'll be watching you guys!

[brentmcjunkin]

I am going to say 342 they were a great alliance and they diserve to be in atlanta with us i think they had a great season and should have got to go to atlanta

[thefro526]

I don't remeber the complete list of who's going and who's not but, 381 definitely sold me on the idea of a lap bot being a strong contributer to an alliance. Also I'd have to say 1712 Dawgma is up on my list, they may not have been the best but, they're cool people.

[Jonathan Norris]

Originally Posted by T3_1565

I think from a Canadian point of view, and only judging by the two events I went to, I'm going to give this to 188, unforntaly they had some break downs every now and then, but for how simple there machine was for ball pickup, it worked really well!

I would agree with you on that one 188 had a good bot again this year, had problems with consistency but when they weren't breaking forks or tangling their ropes they could put up a big score. Again on the Canadian front 1310, who was aligned with 188 at GTR, was a pneumatic beast that was a good hurdler and placer.

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Team 1726. I guess they were just unlucky this year, but their bot inspired some other very successful designs. They'd be up for a design award at the Championship had they made it.