I help mentor a rookie team that is located 80 miles away from my house. I got involved with the team 3 weeks into the build season. At that point in the season, the drive base was put together and running. And a catapult was built that would throw a ball IF you placed the ball on it and you physically pulled it down against the springs. They had purchased a winch in hopes of finding a way to energize the catapult. As luck would have it we found the JVN video which gave us direction. And yes we copied it.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/40317 High school students got to see cad drawings for the first time, experiance a neet mechanical device in the Chu- Chu, work with and begin to understand a pneumatic system and compete not just participate.
If not for JVN
we would have had a drive base and a few poles to play defense with. The team has advances 2-3 years over where it would have been without the 3 day build. No brainer!