Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat Fairbank
This argument reminds me of what Karthik is fond of saying, though -- that you can increase your relative competitiveness either by raising your own team up, or by dragging the best teams down.
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It's
not dragging the best down - their absolute performance might be worse than it is with the current ruleset or a official longer build period, but they're still going to win. It's not like proposed (as in, often proposed in whiny threads on CD) rules against spending, tools, sponsors, or shop-built robots that would disproportionately hit elite teams. 1114 was great in 2003 (I was there) when there was no withholding allowance, and they're great now. Their relative performance would almost certainly not change. But everyone's mentors and teachers would see their families more, and you'd have an easier time retaining teachers (having been on several teams where the massive time commitment has put a strain on the teachers involved).
To put it another way:
-A build season that was actually 6 weeks long would remove exactly the same amount of build time from every team rich or poor, big or little. We all get the same amount of time.
-Rules against spending or tools or sponsors or high-end COTS components or software disproportionately fall upon top-end teams, and would more fall under the quote of "trying to drag others down".