[MooreteP]

I'd like to address the elephant in the room:
Those elite teams that consistently build and program awesome robots that make some people think, "Oh why bother competing with a robot that was obviously made by professional engineers."

I have been doing this since 1998 and walking through the pits is still my favorite activity. I like to note who is surrounding the robot and touching, disassembling, reconstructing, machining, and programming. You can tell by the level of student participation how well the mentors have trained and passed off the reigns through their educating and inspiring of their proteges.
You reap what you sow.

It really isn't about the robot, but there is a wide spectrum of mentor control exhibited in the pits.

118: Watching the students in Hartford last year tear down and rebuild their robot. It was almost completely student driven with mentors only advising.

254: Sitting next to the Einstein Field in 2011 with their student programmer rapt in his attention as to how well his autonomous was working and if he should tweak it further.

1717: Riding to the airport after St. Louis last year and learning that their team is all seniors who have been trained and progressed through three previous years of training for the eligibility to create a robot for each season.

177: I check them out every year as I am fascinated by their consistent success. Driver training is essential to them. Their mentors are very good about the students owning the design and operation.

Each team, like every family, is unique in its own way.

Some mentors volunteer their precious free time and just want to help put out a respectable product and may have to exert more control than they like to complete the project.
Other mentors are part of a comprehensive program that successfully trains and develops the talents of students over four years.
Each of them sincerely believe in the meaning of FIRST.

So take some time, check out each robot in their pit. Respect and forgive the mentors who are doing the best they can with what they have, and admire those who have developed competent teams wherein the students were able to develop talents and skills under their auspices

In the end, at the competitions, all of the students see a panoply of teams, a variety of approaches, and are witness to the different solutions created to solve a common problem.

This will inspire them in the future as it demonstrates the possible.