[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by MrForbes

I guess things are different out here in Arizona. We do pretty well without spending much money at all on our robot, or on equipment. Last year we were top seed, and won the AZ regional, with a robot made with a dozen students armed with nothing more elaborate than a table top band saw, and a few cordless drills. With two engineering mentors and a couple teachers, taking turns watching over us.

Last year, 4464 were top seed and rookie all-star at DC. Even with our limited means, though, we were far better off than most other rookie teams I've seen.

It doesn't change the fact that right now, compared to teams with more resources, we're severely hampered by our budget limitations in a way that could be completely avoided if the bag and tag rules were more sane. I simply do not see the benefit of pretending to have a hard deadline when teams with sufficient funding and manpower can effectively circumvent it. If the deadline is to exist, it should be equally stringent for all teams. You should not be able to, as was said earlier in the thread, "buy time."