[Cory]

[quote=Bongle;1275017]...so? All of a sudden, a two-level climb would be the amazing thing at the regional. The amazingness of a 30pt climb isn't simply because it is a 30pt climb, it's because it was very rare and very difficult to pull off under the current build-season ruleset. Shorten the season, and something slightly less amazing would become the amazing thing that'd get people off their feet (and, of course, the 1-2 teams that managed a 30pt climb in a 6-week strict build would be even more amazing).

If they extended the build season, you'd see more 30pt climbers, which would reduce the specialness of a 30pt climb, and then the inspiring thing would be someone doing it in like 4 seconds.[/QOUTE]

I disagree. 20 point climbing is the same thing as 30 point climbing, from a climber design standpoint. 30 point climbing just repeats the first motion. We would not have 20 point climbed either. I think very, very few teams would have 30 point climbed if they knew they absolutely had to get it right the first go around. I can't speak for 1114, but if I were them and were deciding between floor pickup and 30 point climbing I'd probably pick floor pickup because there's far less risk of not having it perfected in six weeks.

It was so hard to do that I don't think you would have seen many teams adding one. You could certainly scrap everything above your base and make a 30 point climber, if you had an open competition, but it would be very, very difficult to retrofit one around your existing design. Maybe some more teams would have built one, but there'd still be no more than a handful that would be worth the time they took to align and get to the top.

Regardless, it's one small section of the point I was trying to make. If the best robots aren't as good and do less things in a less impressive fashion, it hurts all of FIRST because students on other teams aren't as inspired by the amazing things the really good teams are able to do.