Even in the olden times of plenty, everyone involved with any sort of project like combat robots will be waiting on parts, so Team Waiting On Parts would definitely be a good name for a team. However, it was not my first choice. Back in 2011, after some local friends had been using the term to refer their collective bad decisions, I registered the domain teambadidea.com. Eventually it turned into a tumblr where we posted dumb things found elsewhere. But like all good tumblrs, that eventually fell into disregard. I kept the domain expecting to use it for something else someday, such as when I finally get into combat robotics. I never really mentioned this anywhere, but it was sitting on the back burner.
Out of the blue, some random person contacted me, asking about the domain, noting they were just accepted to battlebots and they were using that as their team name and were wondering if there would be any problems if they used something close… the plural form. I noted that actually, I very much had an interest in it, but go ahead and use it, do whatever, and good luck. I then promptly forgot about it until a year later when I decided to finally build a beetleweight.
Then I remembered… went through all the BB teams… and sure enough… there was Claw Viper. Oh yeah… those other guys used our name. And just like that, Team Bad Idea became TOGUON. Unfortunately, that’s pretty close to a particular model of car, and apparently someone had used that as their username on twitter a few years back and was banned, so maybe I should use something different.
While I was sitting there waiting on parts to arrive… the name was there in front of me. Now all I need to do is finish my beetle.