[Kevin Kolodziej]

Originally Posted by Dan Petrovic

I doubt there are teams out there that say "well, we can't build a second robot, so let's just give up on FRC"

No, they say "Well, we built something that looks like a robot, then watched it do nothing in a bag for 4 weeks, and couldn't get it to work in 10 stressful hours on Thursday at the event away from our shop in a cramped 10x10 space, so let's just give up on FRC"

FIRST can say it's not about the robot all they want, but when you are rookies, it is exactly all about the robot. If you have a robot that never moves in your first year, it is hard to justify the time and money you spent on the program. A few teams experience that but become inspired by the rest of the teams and continue on, but that is by far the exception. It doesn't have to do well...it just has to do SOMETHING.

The first team I started while in college only lasted two years. Our first year had a robot that moved in 1 match at our first event and didn't do much better in our second event (we got a NASA grant and were able to go to 2 events). The second year, new kids were not interested in joining the team that seeded last (or nearly) at both events the previous year and we took 3 students to Midwest and once again had a robot that barely moved in any of our matches. The team died out due to a lack of interest. I am happy to say that several years later a new team formed at that school and the program is running very well these days, and the team I moved on to will be starting its 13th year next year.

Re: Bag Day, sure a few teams would still build 2 or 3 robots, but not all would, which also means many of those parts shortages would (hopefully) go away too. And you wouldn't have to pay for overnight shipping anymore!