I have heard ever since I joined robotics last year about teams "buying" their robot. At first I was questioning how that is even possible, but as the year went on and my team progressed into the new season (this year), I have been growing more irritated with the topic.
Not once have I seen any solid proof a team was buying their robot. The accusations are all based off of assumptions and in quite a few cases bitterness. It makes me sad seeing a post like this, it really does. A mentor has to come and defend his team since people are upset they are doing a GREAT job. Every team has their own way of building and learning, I'm sure it doesn't involve cheating.
A team should never have to listen to people accusing them of buying a robot they worked so hard on; it just isn't fair. FIRST taught me that it's more important to learn and have fun doing it than it is to win. This year with the cooperation points you gain when working with teams on opposite alliances just pushes that point even further out into the open.
Why are we wasting our time spiting each other? We should work together to make all our teams the best they can be. I've seen how teams can help each other- at the competition in CH Academy our robot was having really bad connection problems. It crashed on the field after hybrid period three matches in a row! And a team(3151) we had never spoken with previously came and helped us fix that problem.
Let's all stop hating. It makes robotics much more enjoyable.
