[Colin P]

The Robowranglers consistently put out great robots, and more importantly, great students. Anyone who falls under the impression that powerhouse teams have mentor-built robots needs only to look at the students for their answer.

I haven't been in FIRST for a very long time, but it's pretty easy to notice who's doing the work on a robot. 148, 1114, 217 are all teams that fall under criticism for having mentor built robots, but I have NEVER seen a mentor from any of these teams even touch the robots at competition. Meanwhile, many "midrange" veteran teams have packs of mentors taking care of everything. It's easy to point fingers and try to draw attention away from yourself. I'll admit, I once did this as a student.

I'm now trying to build my team with a stricter set of values. FIRST isn't about acting kindly to everyone in an attempt to be a gracious professional. There shouldn't be any acting involved. We know we aren't going to be the best team out there, but we try to do our best. We applaud those who also do the best they can, especially if their best is better than ours.
Teams need to stop worrying about who's doing what on other teams and concentrate on doing the best they can with what they have and keeping the students in charge and in line.