Quote:
Originally Posted by de_
I can't say if this scenario applies in this case
Lets say you are a super team and you build (or help build or direct the building of) an identical robot for a non-super team and the 2 of you form an alliance that wins not only your local regional but you go to say 3 other regionals and win all those as well.
If the second super robot did not exist, at 4 regionals another 4 (deserving) teams would have virtually certainly been in the winning alliance and would have received:
- a permanent very desirable trophy
- a highly visible regional championship flag
- a very limited availability invite to the championship (a huge growth experience for students)
- substantial recognition in their school, mentors, sponsors, students etc
- substantial improvement in funding opportunities to go to the championship (versus if they had come second place with no invite, no trophy etc)
This may not break any current FIRST rules but it is clearly inconsistent with the goals of FIRST and the student base overall are the losers.
Clearly its okay to help a junior team get a basic robot to the a regional. To get them into the finals in my mind crosses the line.
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The only thing preventing these four "deserving" teams from winning the event was that they built a robot that wasn't as competitive.
Both the "super team" and the "deserving" teams were given the same opportunities, timeline, ability to fundraise, ability to find sponsorship, ability to find mentors, etc...
If the deserving team truly deserved it, they would have achieved it.