[FrankJ]

Full disclosure: I am one of the one that doesn't see winning the robot competition as the primary goal of First.

The more the rules shift so that there is parity in the robots the more there is going to be an element of luck in winning. Like it or not parity seems to be a goal of the GDC. This year if you could build a good robot, develop a good drive team, & have good scouting, you have a pretty chance at winning. (Of course the teams that build uber robots tend to have good drive team & scouting)

The biggest issue in not winning is the ticket to worlds. I can see how teams can have losing, and not getting that ticket, hinge on a bad call or poorly thought out rules being very upsetting. Which I think is the major point of this now 8 page thread.