[Martin]

The $3,500 limit, is anything but a mistake. Finally FIRST is doing something about monster teams gobbling up the competition. Last year our team built "tweety" probably the ugliest robot in the toronto regional...but since we spent $100 on it, that dosent come as a suprise. But along with spending so little money on it came the greatest experience ever. Trying to do things without the exact parts, modifying things to make tehm work for you, thats where you elarn, when u use your head. Quite some learning experience if a blueprint or parts go into a machine shop, and out comes half of your robot. DO things yourselves, LEARN !
I can already smell it coming, arguments aobut how im wrong, and thats not the point of FIRST and all that, but honestly i dont care. There is no one in this world who can tell me how i feel...and i feel that putting your hands on the bot only enhances the experience. So all you engeneers, start building those robots for the competition, but myself along with my team are gonna go and get dirty.