Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave McLaughlin
Prior to bag day, there is little that FIRST does to mitigate the uneven playing field that is FRC. There are always teams that, at the current juncture, are more fortunate in terms of funding, resources, experience... etc. However, at competition, it is my opinion that this glaring disparity is mitigated to an acceptable extent. What you did before bag day (out of bag windows included for district teams) is what you get take out of the bag when you arrive at competition. That is the same for every team. For the teams that build 2 practice robots, to the teams that work until 11:59 on bag day to complete a single robot.
While legal, I think that what 900 has done has provided us a peak through the looking glass. In the arms race that to a large extent is FRC, the disparity between teams will only continue to grow if events like this are allowed to continue. Many teams in FRC build practice robots, and for good reason. But the vast majority, apparently 900 excluded, most likely operate on the understanding that the practice robot will remain a test-bed that stays at home while the competition robot goes away to play.
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I guess where I'm lost here is that I don't understand what contradiction of the spirit of the rule 900 did here? They finished everything before Bag Day, and put a robot plus a bunch of parts in bags. The parts were assembled to look like a robot - is that what the problem was? If it was just a huge garbage bag of spare assemblies, would it be better within the "spirit" of the rule?
If you build it within the six weeks, intend to use it at competition, and don't intend to use it before competition, you can put it in the bag. The only difference between this and a team bagging spare parts, is the number of parts involved and how they happen to be assembled. The spirit of the rule allows spare parts - does the spirit of the rule really outline what form the parts are in?
But really, bag day is ridiculous. Let's be done with this nonsense and just allow build up to and through competition already.