I always find it best to start with the presumption that "the other guy" has the best intentions at heart.
Last year was my first with FIRST and I did wonder how in the world other teams built such awesome robots if the kids were doing the building... Instead of getting upset, though, I asked questions, got to know the other teams and learned what they were doing well. Being very gracious overall, they were more than happy to share. This year, we incorporated some of their strategies into our seaons and.... our robot is one of the awesome ones now! Yes, it is student-built. One of the most important things to learn is balance: Once you realize that it's not "alll about the robots," but rather about learning, mentorship and gracious professionalism, you find that every team needs a different balance amongst mentor and student responsiblities. for instance, a rookie team of three with only freshman will need a lot more direct input from mentors than a well-established team with 40 students, half of whom have been in FIRST since Lego League.... Moreover, no team will be able to establish itself long-term if the kids are not doing the work. What teenager is going to just sit around for six weeks and watch some old guy build a robot? For those who would doubt the work the kids on our team do, I would invite them to our pits - where they would see mentors standing back and watching the kids work: proof that the kids know the robot quite well and have been very involved in the building process.
Regarding the 84" and stopping the full court shooter comments... My team has a FCS and, at our regionals, we would walk through the pits and watch many other teams put up last-minute blocking devices. I'd chat with teams as they did - usually (with a smile) advising them to make their blockers a lot shorter. As the mentor who works with the drive team, we would talk about how to deal with the blocker - the kids worked hard on our robot for weeks and were not going to let a simple pool noodle and some duct tape stop us. Yes, one option was to drive forward - to the autoline - and shoot from there. Yes, we discussed whether or not the tall defender would be able to push us back or would find itself shoved across the autoline for a foul. We also discussed whether or not the blocking contraption would be robust enough to stop more than a Frisbee or two and were not opposed to shooting until their blocker gave out.
I don't view this as unprofessional or ungracious. We were simply looking at the opponents' attempts to stop us and discussing what we could do about it. If a blocking robot is not strong enough to stand its ground as we push forward clearing a shot, that is a weakness in its design and something, in a spirited competition, we would be exploiting. Likewise, if an opponnent puts up a blocking thingy that cannot handle the repeated abuse it will take from 50+ mph flying disks, then it shoudl be exploited.
At one of our regionals this year, our robot had a flaw - it was a little too top-heavy. Entering the weekend, we had thought we had dealt with it well-enough - and were feeling quite confident about the issue until our first match in the semi-finals. Then, we took a hit at a funny angle and went down - our first tip (or even close) of the weekened - and we were out for the match. Many of the younger students on the opposing alliance hollered and cheered at our misfortune - and probably said some things they shouldn't have. This happens: we are working with kids and it is all meant to be a learnign process. Instead of letting this bother them, our kids handled with grace. We were the big-bad FCS beast and we had been beaten fair-and-square. We did have an engineering flaw and it was exploited (albeit by pure chance). Later, a mentor form that team apologized to us for the behavior of his kids: they had turned it into a learning opporunity for their students.
So, my point? FIRST, if we always assume the best of others, we won't see ungraciousness where it may not be. Second, FIRST is all about learning Gracious Professionalism and if all our students had it down, they would not need FIRST. Third, when another team's students are struggling with Grace and Professionalism, recognize that their mentors most likely realize there is an issues and are working on it behind the scenes - just don't expect them to lambast their kids publicly. All of our teams, at some point or another, have (or will have) moments of which we are none-too-proud. Heck - even the mentors will. (Personally, I said some things to an Expedia agent that were neither graceful nor professional when trying to make flight reservations for my team last week....
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So, what to do about YouTube comments? Graciously and Professionally let it go.