[Alexa Stott]

It definitely takes a lot of the challenge out of it. I think it would also be very discouraging for a student to come onto the team during the second or third year of the cycle. They might come in with new ideas, but be unable to actually implement any of them because the team has already found a winning design. At that point, they just become glorified maintenance workers.

It would also make me less motivated to get a working design during the first year because I would know that I have the next two years to perfect it, rather than just six weeks. A 3-year cycle defeats the purpose of FIRST having a deadline.

It would also just simply get stale. As already pointed out, teams would eventually just start designing essentially the same robot. I'm not sure about everyone else, but I'm usually ready for something new by the time the last off-season events are being played.