[ShortBang]

Having read all ten pages of this thread, there is something that I fell still needs to be added to the conversation.

While I have never had the honor of sharing the field with 1114 and many of the other "power teams" mentioned, and I admittedly hold a Yankee type jealousy towards them, I have shared the field with certain Nationally known and recognized teams and left the field feeling quite offended, my respect for that team gone.

This team had an adult mentor as their drive coach, who took control of the decisions from the get go. He would not listen to our teams input, for it was his way or the highway. The lack of respect he showed for Me as a student, my fellow students, and the students on the third team was completely appalling, and to me, reflected on the rest of his team.

At another competition, a mentor from the same team was waiting with our team in the queing area, waiting for our match together to begin. At this time we were having problems with our drivetrain, and another student and I had our hands in the robot fixing it. This mentor came over, proclaimed that we were going about fixing it the wrong way, and threw his hands into our robot to begin to do it his way. I quickly, and probably rather rudely responded to him that us students could fix our own teams robot, and we didn't need his help.

I guess the moral of the story is that sometimes these hard feelings do have a base to support them. While booing a team and making remarks about them is completely unacceptable, I feel that maybe some teams/mentors also dont realize that their actions have contributed to their "reputation."

Don't take this as criticism towards 1114, who for all I hear, and can tell,not only make awesome robots, but foster the kind of team that FIRST dreams about. But just as there are bad apples that boo them, there are bad apple "power teams" that lend to that reputation.