[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by Anupam Goli

How is it unfair that our facility happens to be within walking/subway distance of the venue? I'm just pointing out a flaw in the wording of this rule.

I'll give you a hypothetical with some hyperbole.

Team A and Team B build the same robot. Both robots have a critical flaw in them that breaks in their first match on Friday.

Team A is from a city 500 miles away and all of their people are at the event, so they have to build a replacement in the pits with material and spare parts they brought before pits close. They miss all of their matches that day fixing their robot.

Team B's workspace is 3 miles from the venue, so they drive to their shop, revise their CAD model, press go on their cnc machine, and have a spare part in 30 minutes and are able to attend all of their matches that day.

Team B had the coincidental advantage that their build shop was right next to the venue. This is not fair to Team A.

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

If you're not going to say it, then I will.

Spare parts (including fabricated identicals) STILL count against your 45 pound allowance. If you have two robot arms that are identical, one of which is on the bagged robot and another you bring in, the arm you brought in counts against your 45 pounds. If you bring in (or have access to out in your trailer) more than 45 pounds of spare parts (not including things like COTS, raw materials, etc.), you are absolutely in violation of the witholding allowance. Otherwise, there would be no reason to have the witholding allowance rule in the first place. You don't get to have a whole practice robot in your trailer to farm parts from. You have brought ~120 pounds to the event. Even if you only select 45 pounds from it. You still brought your whole practice robot to the competition. You are in violation. Pick the parts that are most likely to break and bring spares of those. Yes, I know many teams violate the rules. So stop it.

I agree entirely.