[dtengineering]

My relationship with ship day was always a rather unhealthy love/hate soap opera, but looking back after a few years away from a team, I think the six week build period is a valuable part of the FRC experience.

There are few things we do that are so pure and simple as "build a machine in six weeks: GO!" I think the intensity and pressure is a very valuable character-building experience for students and teachers alike.

And with only three adult mentors, we managed to find a way to build "clone bots" about half the time.

We also learned to not try to "out-awesome" the big guns, but to build a simple, reliable machine that looked good and could do one thing well. After all, you get to play WITH the superstars almost as often as you play against them.

The ultimate expression of that approach was 4334's explanation of their decision to build a feeder bot last year. They knew they'd be competing against the likes of 1114 and 2056, so worked from a strategy of "if you can't beat them, join them". Join them they did and came perhaps just a networking glitch away from a world championship.

Anyway, learning to embrace ship day is all part of the FRC experience. Work with it, and design within your resources... if you aren't happy with your resources, then that's something to work on in the off season.

Jason