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There is a vast difference between a broken/dead bot and one that has not been assembled.
At the NY regional one team had a box of metal and a box of electrical parts. They worked all through Thursday and Friday and never competed once. All the weight was on the back of the bot so it fell over with out even moving, so they hunted around and found 2 "BRICKS"they wraped the duct tape around them and used them for balast. The bricks had a duel job, they also stoped the front casters from bending and falling off.
Due to the hard work and great driving skills of their aliances they continued to score high "QP's" and by the end of the games they were seeded 12th. The top 8 teams sided within them selves so that this team soon became a picker!!!!.
It was heart breaking to watch this team struggle to assemble a pile of junk into a moving driving pile of junk. This team probably spelt doom for many teams as some were teamed up with them several time. A year of hard work, 6 weeks of intensive design and building could be destroyed by the inability of a team that could not build a functioning robot for the competition.
There should be a minimum standard for submiting a robot to compeet in a FIRST competition. They are inspected and have to pass this trial prior to getting on the field, it is also my understanding that any bot that doesnt pass inspection cant play and that "ALL" bots have to be inspected by a certain time on Friday morning.
There was a lot of teams who lost a year of dreams and hard work because of this team who rather than withdraw from the competition stayed to ruin it for others.
If your wondering, we did have one game where we were alianced with this team and we did win but "could" we have done better with a functioning robot!!!.
I wonder what page "BRICKS" are listed under in Small Parts.
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