[RunawayEngineer]

I am familiar with FRC mistakes. Many years ago when I was a student on another team, we lost the final match on Einstein by a hair. I think that if we had followed a different strategy that we could have turned that easily. Most mistakes are the result of hindsight - but I saw the perfect strategy at the time and pushed for it. I just didn't push hard enough for it and we lost.

But here's the beautiful thing about FIRST: you are supposed to make mistakes. The whole point of a hands-on experience with a competition is for everyone to try things to see what works and what doesn't. You are supposed to wrestle with the technical challenges, the logistical challenges, the quasi-political challenges, the morale challenges, and the emotional challenges and learn from them.
If you are making mistakes and learning from them, then you are getting the prime FIRST experience. Winning feels great, but growth is priceless.