[MrTechCenter]

This is probably just the particular regional you went to, I've seen tons of action, but I'm out here in California. As for build season, usually a poor robot is the result of a design that was either too complex and had to be scrapped at the last minute or a design that has been changed too much. Lack of resources is also grounds for a less competitive robot, but I've seem some pretty great robots that were made out of garages. To prepare to build your own bot, I suggest you talk about what strategy you're trying to implement, what you want your robot to do, and then look at some existing designs from others teams for inspiration on how you could build your robot.