[Conor Ryan]

Ahhh 2005, what a great year. Probably my favorite in terms of design, I just had a lot of fun with it. In many ways it was a very even playing field.

Minimally Competitive Robots were used quite frequently in competitions, however I recall from many of the champions that strategy didn't quite pan out. However, this was a very weird era, it was the first year of a really good kit drive train. Prior to 2005, the KOP was a lot worse, the idea of having a reliable drivetrain was not feasible to many teams.

What 2005 brought though was the first ever reliable KOP drivetrain that was designed with FRC in mind. It wasn't until that happened that teams were able to focus on manipulator designs extensively.

So I think the explanation is it was kind of stuck from an old era, and a possibly a test by the GDC to see if it would make the field more competitive overall.