[mrnoble]

So far, my context for answering the original question is limited to the following: my team's build season (including watching videos from 2010 and 2008, as well as Ri3D); the scrimmage we attended last weekend; the local teams we interact with; and the posted pics and videos of teams on CD. Outside my team, I've seen a lot of circumstantial evidence that Ri3D/blitz influenced design, but I haven't seen one robot that straight-up copied their favorite. It's been a hodge-podge, with ideas like the choo-choo showing up on a mini-SS, for instance. Other ideas, like the all-omni drive, I haven't seen at all. My own team went in a completely different direction, but we cribbed the idea from our past experience and some prototype videos from other teams. Even so, I'm sure our robot doesn't much resemble it's inspirations (Ninjineers, shout out to you).

Honestly, I think that three things are true in this case. One, most or all of the teams that show up with Toro Sticks (or any of the other mechanisms) will either do a worse (75%) or better (25%) job of implementing them than the originals, with almost none being exact copies. Two, I'd personally rather say "there goes another Ri3D" than "there goes another box that rolls". And three, this fits the FIRST mission just fine, though in an evolved form.