To add to alot of the comments here already. I think FIRST by creating the game this year that they have, eliminated the engineering thought process except for in the minibot deployment and building.
I think any team that was around for any reasonable time in 2007 will be right to do well and many of the robots that we saw win regionals and championships in 2007 will be copied.
From everything I have seen here there are really on 4 robots to be built this year.
1 - 148/1902 style 4 bar linkage
2 - 233 style extending arm
3 - a single jointed arm
4 - 25/118 style multi stage elevator
I think this year will be competitive, it will help some of the teams that have difficulties during build season, because they will be able to rely on past years learnings from other teams and see what works and what doesnt. But in the end it reduces the total amount of engineering ingenuity present in this community, because we are all still engineers and probably strongly believe "Dont try to reinvent the wheel"
Hoping for a fun season ahead regardless
