[Mike Schreiber]

This is one of the main reasons I argue for a practice bot. Not only does it provide spare parts when something inevitably breaks, it provides a much better sense of how much wear and tear your parts will see (just like a durability car). Practicing at least 4 or 5 hours a week (as most teams who build 2 robots do) means you've hit or exceeded your competition bots life cycle in 1-2 weeks. If the design failed after 5 hours of practice you know what you have to watch for on the real robot.