[James Kuszmaul]

We (971) have built a practice bot which is a clone of the competition bot since 2010 (I'm not sure about before then; The only event we had won previous to 2009 was SVR in 2004). The bots are built simultaneously, though the focus generally shifts to one as ship day approaches, so we finish up the practice bot after ship. The two robots are theoretically identical, though minor differences crop up over time (eg, we do not have sponsor stickers on the practice bot, as I said, minor differences).