[Bryce2471]

Disclaimer: This post reflects only my opinion.
I really like some of the discussion going on in this thread. Before reading it, I wasn't 100% locked down on what my goals were for this FRC season.

I love to win. I'm very competitive, and I've come extremely close to national titles in several other competitions before (Most notably Chess and FLL), so one of my main goals this season (along with most other people) is to win. However, my view on this competition has been molded over the years, and after winning the Dean's List Award last year; I really want to inspire people on my team, and on others.

This was a battle going on in my mind for the past year, and I think I've come to a conclusion: I wan't to build the best robot, even if that means that I don't go quite as far in the competition.

That statement may seem strange, but it might help if I give some examples:
1) In 2012, I believe that team 1717 had, by far, the best robot in the world. They had amazing capabilities, with a deadly accurate shooter and an awesome swerve system. However, they were not the world champions because there robot broke down in the field elims.
2) I don't mean to bring down the 2013 world champions but I would have much rather built 469's robot than any of the robots that won. This is because, in my mind, they built the better robot. 469's machine could play more of the game, more effectively than any of the winning robots, in my opinion.

So even though I want to win, I don't want to do it with a better implementation of the same robot that everyone else built.
(This is not to say that you have to use swerves to have the better robot; Only that I want to build the better robot, and swerves can slightly help in doing that.)