[MrJohnston]

I don't know if I "agree" with the exhibition match concept or not. I don't think it really bothers me at all either way.

My team was one of the teams that played.... Competitively, it did not help us one bit: We were on an alliance with two robots that effectively do exactly what we do and have the same limitations. Frankly, I don't think we'd even choose one another if we were allied.... Due to those limitations, we agreed to pick up an RC and go to the landfill - something we have never done or even practiced.... We also put in our backup drive team - students who had not competed at all this weekend... We gained no competitive advantage.

As for wear and tear - we've taken a lot of damage during matches this year. The risk is still there - though we were really careful not to harm our bots. My only concern is that the alliances were randomly configured and, though the "strengths" of the robots was reasonably comparable, one side had a wider range of abilities and complemented one-another so much better than the other that the "result" was a foregone conclusion.