[Craig Roys]

Budget is not really a fair way as I would guess most teams spend about the same amount on their robot and they're all definitely under the cap of whatever it is this year - $4000? The amount we spend on our robot is a very small portion of our team budget - maybe 5-10%. The rest goes into things like registration, travel, lodging, food, uniforms, offseason events, demos, community outreach, etc.

Also, I don't believe a team should be penalized for working hard to obtain a #1 seed; or even a 1-8 for that matter. You should be able to choose the robot that you believe gives you the best chance to win. Even the so-called super alliances are beatable if a lower seed is able to pick wisely a play a sound strategy. I'm not saying it would be easy, but it is possible...if it was a foregone conclusion, we wouldn't even bother playing the matches.