With their undefeated run this entire season and through Einstein, is this year’s performance by The Cheesy Poofs the Greatest of All Time? There have been some dominant robots in the past, including the legendary BEAST 71 machine from 2002, Simbotics 1114 in 2008, and the Poofs bot from 2014, but I don’t think anyone has ever progressed untouched through an entire season the way the Poofs have this year.
Honestly still think 254’s 2014 robot was more dominant. 2014 Einstein was amazing. They were up against stronger competition and they still managed to pull out the win. 2014 was a much harder game to dominate too as you really had to rely on your alliance partners if you wanted to win.
Edit: How many other teams had a consistent 3 ball in 2014, 3539 and 1678?
I think this has to be the most dominant season in FRC history because they didn’t lose a match all year. This is something that I don’t believe any world champion has done. In addition, they won almost every match by 100 points and nobody came close to beating them in eliminations at every event they went to. Going undefeated in an FRC season is very similar to the Warriors winning 73 wins, the Patriots undefeated regular season, or the Mariners winning 116 games in baseball but unlike those teams they won a championship which makes this an amazing accomplishment. This also shows the level that 254 has gotten too as a program and they are alone at the top as the best team in FRC.
1114 2008 and the early 2000s Beatty Beasts were more dominant at their respective games.
However, I think that Lockdown means that in my mind, 254’s run from 2013-on now surpasses 71’s peak for the most dominant era for a team in FRC history. You can easily argue that they’ve built the best robot in the world for each of these years, and don’t think you can really dispute that for 2014-2015, and 2017-2018.
Lockdown has passed Simbot SS as the most dominant robot in the 3v3 alliance era.
The most dominant robot of all time would still have to be 71 in 2002.
I’d agree with that. 254 pretty much defines this era of FRC. The only team I can really think of who more consistently preforms on a high level than 254 is 2056 but 254 usually has the better bot.
Which Simbot SS are you referring to? There’s a lot of Simbot SS’s.
Half champs. Doesn’t count.
/s that robot is MFD
I’m not necessarily saying 254 in 2018 isn’t the GOAT, but I don’t think it is at all obvious that they are either. GOAT questions are difficult enough to answer in sports where the game is the same every year. I don’t really think there is a great way to approach this question in FRC.
I could pull out metrics if people want them, but 1114 in 2008 is still the GOAT in my mind. I personally don’t really care about records, I care about how dominant a team is relative to the field. I don’t think there is any question in hardly anyone’s minds as to which robot was the best in 2008. It’s not so obvious to me that 254 has the best robot in 2018, and I feel like that’s a hurdle that should be cleared before they can seriously be considered the GOAT.
Records are made to be broken. 
254 is an incredible team. Congrats, guys.
Add to that the record number of 4RP matches in qualifications, often in spite of who their alliance partners were and their strengths/weaknesses.
What is impressive this year, IMHO, is how they have mastered every single aspect of the Power Up challenge, not just the robot.
Pittsburgh Steelers, 6 Super Bowl Wins
Do two half champs banners equal a whole champs?
2485 as well.
33
IMO, theres no question, no one was even close to building a robot with the capabilites 254 has. Yes some had a buddy climb, yes some had a far reaching intake to place on the back of the scale, yes some had an intake that could clamp, spring, and drop. Yes some had 4 cube scale autos…
Whos had every. Single. one… 254.
In past years there have been some things that could have been improved on their robots, something that could have made them thattt much better. But this year there is literally nothing I can think of.
Their ramps were idiot proof, their elevator was the most controllable and fastest in the world, they had the best autos in the world.
Usually when you see insane robots like 118’s, 1678’s, 2056’s, 1114’s, you say “WOW”. 254’s lockdown made me say, “Literally HOW”
71 lost a match on Einstein in 2002, and had a fairly odd record overall (due to the nature of the game). 71 almost won off cheese, but 254 won off pure execution of every aspect of the game.
Just gonna say… thiswas their first match of the season.
3 cube scale autonomous, 1 in the switch, 3 in the vault, and a double climb. In their first match. And they made it look easy.
More than anything, Lockdown is just elegant. It’s an incredibly well engineered solution to FIRST Power Up. I’m not sure about GOAT, but certainly and indisputably the best this year.
This. So yes, 254 Lockdown gets my vote for GOAT robot in FRC.