Editing Placebo

The Placebo was a series of stand-in "placebo" robots that were used between 1995 and 1998. The Placebo played in some rounds of the double elimination tournament, particularly to fill in for a third robot in matches that only had two out of three spaces filled. Placebos were not used during the quarterfinal, semifinal, and final one-on-one best two out of three format rounds, only the earlier double-elimination tournament. The Placebo would occasionally fill in for an actual team.

The [[1995]] Placebo was a large black cylinder on wheels with large yellow PLACEBO lettering<ref name="placebo">[https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/first-101-10-6-05/65665 FIRST 101 <nowiki>[10/6/05]</nowiki>]</ref>.

The [[1996]] Placebo was a hovercraft vehicle with a boxy metal base with two angled fins on the top decorated with arrows and PLACEBO lettering. The two air intakes on the angled front panels of the Placebo give it a somewhat mouselike appearance. The 1996 Placebo would float and often spin aimlessly around the playing field and the noise of the fans could be heard while it was running.

The [[1997]] Placebo was a black upright vacuum with the sucking portion removed to make room for a control system to make it drive around the field during matches<ref name=placebo />. 

The [[1998]] Placebo was simply a black box on casters that was intended to be pushed around for defensive purposes. In practice, they were essentially never used<ref name=placebo />.

Traditionally, Placebo would receive zero points in a match, although allegedly in some cases they did recieve points.

Early on, it appears "placebo robot" was also used as a nickname for practice robots. [[frc191|Team 191]]'s [https://web.archive.org/web/19970513235552/http://www.xerox.com/org/usfirst/tour/joevellozzi.html 1996 website] shows one of their students driving a 1995 "placebo vehicle," a robot built by the team to practice playing the [[1995]] game against.

==Gallery==
<gallery caption="Additional photos on the [https://www.frcarchive.com/index.php?q=post/list/placebo/1 FRC Archive]" perrow=3 heights=250px widths=300px>
File:1996 1996nh placebo.gif|The 1996 Placebo spinning around at the [[1996nh|1996 New England Tournament]] [https://www.frcarchive.com/index.php?q=post/view/]
File:4565 - 1996 1996cmp frc-112 frc45 match placebo score.jpg|Placebo receiving zero points at the [[1996cmp|1996 National Championship]] [https://www.frcarchive.com/index.php?q=post/view/4565]
File:44539 - 1997 1997frc47 1997il frc67 match placebo robot.png|The 1997 Placebo at the [[1997il|1997 Motorola Midwest Regional]] [https://www.frcarchive.com/index.php?q=post/view/44539]
</gallery>