Quote:
Originally posted by Mike Norton
Does anybody have the same feeling I do.
The rules state that you can now build more stuff for your robot up to the Wednesday after your competition.
So lets look at it. If you go to 3 regional you will have 14 more days to work on your robot than a team going to 1.
It is all fair the first round of regional then it stacks up against the robot that have not done any earlier regional.
I say they open this rule up. All team can work on parts to their robot. starting from the first regional.
I know it is not about being fair. But give the small team a chance.( teams that do not have a lot of money to do a lot of regionals.)
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We're going to one regional.
While I don't enjoy the thought that teams attending 3 regionals will get triple the time to modify their bot, I also believe that given 3 additional weeks, some engineers could make their bots do almost anything! This is certainly not the solution...
We'd get to nationals, and there'd be clones of the most successful designs. Especially of the successful teams that have released information i.e. Technokats.
Frankly, even as the rule stands now, I'm scared we're going to arrive in Houston and see similar versions of our now (I believe currently) unique approach to holding the ramp. I guess that will depend on the Gracious Prof of other teams... and whether or not we suck royally at UTC...
I guess, imitation is the highest form of flattery...
Also... while I know FIRST intends the rule for robot repair... There ARE teams who would take advantage of said rule (as they should!) and use it to rebuild an entire robot. I'm reminded of TRIBE in 2001 completely rebuilding thier bot in the 3 days between UTC and Nats. This is certainly allowed within the current rule, and I think anyone who believes teams wont take advantage of it, is nuts.
The more time they have, the more technically complex the robot will be.
I guess it all boils down to what Deano said during kickoff:
This game is not fair.
Those that can... can. Those that can't... well... deal with it.
Unfortunately we fall into the second category... so I guess we'll do the best we can this year, with what we have, and hopefully do well enough that next year we have more resources, and can attend 3 regionals.
The "small teams" need to get bigger, or do the best they can with what they have. As much as I don't like it sometimes... this competition ISNT fair, and there really isnt anyway to make it fair....
Just another rant from the Clarkson kid... sorry
throws $.02