After reading this thread I was amazed to how good RAWC was, and how much trouble they had to go through. Its crazy how good they were, and how few newer members of FRC have heard of them.
I just wanted to start this thread to hear about dominant teams who are no longer as dominant.
47 (now 51) - The best team never to win a Championship. Still a solid contender but nothing like their heyday.
71 - 4x Champs. Haven’t won one since 2004. Missed CMP last year.
217 - 2x World Champs. 3rd Pick at MSC this year, missed CMP last year.
EDIT - Disclaimer, all of these teams are still GREAT teams. Just not nearly as dominant as they used to be.
Sorry, but that title (though not the lack of dominance) has to go to 233. Consistently in the eliminations, deep in the eliminations, especially at the Championship. Never won Einstein gold. I looked, and saw something like 3 finalist showings and a couple of division wins other than those, but not the biggest of all. Like I said, though, they aren’t showing any signs of a lack of dominance.
51 can be ruled out of that category due to the OTHER team that merged, 65. (47 alone can stay in. 51, nope.)
60 is one that really sticks out. Any Bionic Bulldogs machine before 2005 could just about win by showing up. After the 2004 season, though, they seemed to fall off the radar. Recently, they’ve been doing better, though. This, for reference, is the other half of 254’s first collaboration–which sparked massive discussion in 2004 when they built identical robots.
We on 45 are kinda facing this. In the past we were quite successful but now in days we face problems even getting into eliminations at regional events. Some of our students attribute this to the loss of some key experienced mentors the past few years.
217 definitely is the major one from Michigan. Yes, they still have a strong bot but I remember 2005-2009. Back in those days, Thunder Chicken’s were dominate. I was proud when we won one match against them. Now they are on the border of “average”. I hope this changes in the next couple years. I love trying to compete with the best.
I am also curious why a lot of these teams became less dominant? Did they lose major sponsors or key mentors? Or have they just been having bad luck?
60’s 2002 robot was amazing.
Another Poof collaborator was team 22 in 2005. The team is now gone.
980 was a powerhouse team. i loved their 2003, 2004 and 2005 robots. 2003 was particular cool with it huge arm.
Sometimes everything revolves around one or two mentors, and when they leave the operation falls apart. I’m not sure about other teams, but 1002 in their glory days won Chairmans award 3 times in a row from 04-06, and getting the honorable mention at championships in 04. From 07-'10, excluding '08, they won an EI award at their home regional. Before '09 started, they lost a valuable mentor and had another mentor get ill. All of the organization and planning went away with these mentors, and now the students of 1002 are left disorganized and trying to recuperate their losses.
I want to say that this year’s game allows for the “average FRC team” to be as good as some of the more traditional “powerhouse” teams.
I’m going to say key mentors.
Sponsors and money are WAY easier to come by than key mentors. When teams lose those key mentors, everything can fall apart regardless of money/sponsors.
47 will never win Einstein Gold. In their best days they were consistent contenders and in 97, if I my data is correct, they won a not insignificant percentage of all regionals. 233 is great, no doubt, but I don’t think they can claim the level of dominance of the team that brought swerve drive to FRC.
60 lost a great mentor in 2004-2005 I think. He was a major contributor to the start of the west coast drive.
22, not very dominant in winning regionals, but they were a chairmans powerhouse. They seemed to have taken socal robotics from the beginning, all due do Mentor Wendy Wooten. She is now, I believe, completely out of FIRST and as a FIRST community we will be lesser without having Dr. Wooten.
47 can never. 233 has never. Slight difference. You could make the case that 47 won a significant percentage of regionals–but if there are only 6 regionals, and you win 2 of them, versus if there are 60 and you win 2 (that you attend), then you’re dealing with a factor of 10 more events, so you can’t even attend a significant percentage. 233 just iterates a lot during their first competition event.
But if we’re going to go down the road of allowing non-competing teams to vie for the designation, we better throw 64 in there. The Gila Monsters tore it up in Arizona, SVR, and L.A. for quite some time until they split after their 2005 World Finalist campaign into two other teams.
I think the team that the title of this thread fits perfectly is 177. 177 was incredible, making it to Einstein SIX consecutive years! Now, they haven’t even qualified for Champs in 2012 or 2013. I’m not sure what changed, perhaps they lost a major mentor or something.
I dunno, I’ve been told to “Never bet against the Beast” until they’re eliminated.
Regardless of their recent history, I’m going to guess that still holds true…
I assert dominant is more a perception than anything. Winning 1/3 regionals vs 1/30th is significantly MORE dominant. At least the perception.
I still never bet against the BEAST. 11 years and I NEVER bet against them.
So… 2056 or 1114. Wins 3x regionals/year, typically (if they don’t it’s an off year and they belong in this thread). 3/60 is 1/20.
Compared to 47, winning 1/3 of regionals (but only winning 2 regionals).
Which is more dominant?
There is a way to make a stronger case for 47 being the best team to never win Championships. Actually, two, but one involves Pink winning the event. 47 was dominant in the 90s, which featured a slightly different type of game than these days. 1v1v1, to be exact. When you factor that in, then you have a much stronger case, because every national or world champion since 1999 has had at least one partner, and usually two. Makes it easier… and harder.
As an alum of Team Hammond I would like to say thank you…but it is true we have been in a slump but all slumps end plus we’ve been getting better this year and are back at the championship I for one say any team that qualifies is doing great.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest that it doesn’t take a big change in team personnel for a once-dominant team to become less dominant. As FRC ages, the top tier of teams is becoming bigger and better. I’m not saying that 71 is building the same caliber of robot that they were in the early 2000s (they could be building better or worse), but you can be sure that today’s FRC teams would have given 71 a run for their money during their Championship years had they existed as they do today.
It’s easy to look at this lack of dominance as the withering of once-great teams, but in many cases, I don’t think it’s that at all. One must consider the immense yet steady improvement of FRC as a whole, which I see as great in a better way than won-3-championships-in-4-years great. I’m sorry if I’m interrupting a thread intended for nostalgia, but I hope you find this interjection insightful.
Team 100 used to be quite the powerhouse and seem to be in a small slump. They appear to have worked at bouncing back at SVR though and I can’t wait to see what they do next year. 