[rich2202]

Jesse reminded me of something:

If you have the money to build 2 robots, the practice bot's base can be built prior to kickoff.

Our team does all the testing with the practice bot, and the competition bot is built in the last 2 weeks of build season. At that point, the practice bot is modified to be as close to the competition bot as possible.

The practice bot also gives the programmers time to enhance the code after stop build, and the mechanical people the ability to continue upgrading the robot (hold back).