Quote:
Originally Posted by IronicDeadBird
I mean no disrespect to anyone who does supply other teams with said cheese or cake, but what I find interesting is that this action is primarily a competition day thing. 5 1/2 weeks ago someone started a thread asking what people were up to and most teams were secretive about designs and such. If you want true synergy between teams these lines of communication need to opened up far before the bag gets put on the robot. I would be behind cheesing if it was done consistently throughout the season but generally speaking (and maybe I am just deaf to the noise) the most I hear help wise is when a team runs out of a set of wheels and another team pitches in. You get a little chitter here and there about "has anyone tested out x,y,z against this game element" but in the end as long as the games are team based we would all do better if we all supported each other.
I don't mean to cast shade on any helping other teams. These actions are amazing, in times of stress you go and help another team. It is truly beautiful to see it happen in competition to see a team help another team get on their feet.
So why doesn't it happen more in the build season?
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Resources?
I know my team had grand plans in December of doing more of this. We were able to field a number of presentations at our kickoff event and build a lot of kit-bots with rookie teams, but frankly, this game was a pretty tough challenge. We spent so much time trying to solve it, we were lucky to answer ~20-25 emails from teams in the area needing input in the last few weeks of build season.
I know at Dallas, I worked with a few mentors from 148 on 2613s bot on Friday. They had a rough year, showed up without any working mechanisms (loss of mentors, new head teacher). They did have an installed pneumatics system complete with a 5 gallon air tank and not a single piston used on the robot. I worked with them on a basic design for a tote pusher, but we also told them that a can-burgler would probably be their best bet to catch heads for elims and drew out a design for them. About half of their team wanted to go the route of a canburgler, the other half wanted to continue designing a vertical lift with parts from Home Depot. I didn't have the resources to help them develop a fully functional lift, and moved to helping other teams with more fixable problems (broken mechanisms, etc).
118 ended up picking them up and adding a canburgler, 2613 got a blue banner, and as far as I could see were quite happy for the experience. They struggled through build season and the first couple days of competition, but with 118s help... found a way to be a part of the winning alliance.
So... I guess I agree that it could happen more? I'd love to be in a situation where in week 5 and 6 of build season, all I need to do is go around to other teams fixing their problems... but I can understand why it isn't practical. There are lots of resources in FIRST to help teams, but those resources get stretched extra thin in build season. People give what they can, and it mostly happens under the radar.
I also like to think that in my short experience in FRC, I have seen more examples of good teams helping weaker teams at competitions for the receiving teams' benefit moreso than the giving teams'. Does it often pay off and benefit the giver? Sure? Do the top tier teams really play with a "win at all costs" mentality? I don't see it that way...