[KeeganP]

Originally Posted by uggmun

This is exactly how I feel now. My friend and I came up with a conveyor-belt loader and slingshot design that worked in our mockups, but our robot this year is going to be a knockoff of the Boom Done and Andymark designs. I'd much rather have a student design that works poorly than a carbon copy that performs magnificently.

We've been having some discussions on the whole Ri3D and BuildBlitz teams in another thread (link). There's a general consensus there that Ri3D and BB increase the overall level of play for FRC, but the question of how Ri3D and BB should change for next year remains.

Personally, I agree that I would rather have my team build a fully original design than copy another, but I don't want Ri3D and BB to go away. Rather, I'd like to see them wait until after the season to release CAD models and in-depth videos. They're incredible machines that I'd love to learn from, but perhaps after the season is over so the creativity of the robot design (though possibly similar) can be "owned" by the teams themselves.