Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber
When a team puts in hundreds hours of work to build an inspiring robot and then goes to a "championship" event where they regularly play with robots that lose wheels... it's uninspiring for competitors and it's pretty crappy for spectators. Championships is supposed to be the Super Bowl of smarts, with a few notable exceptions [1] I don't think I've ever seen the football equivalent of losing a wheel at the Super Bowl level.
Why do these underperforming teams need to attend a "World Championship" event? It seems like a lot of expense and hassle to play 8 matches and then sit around on Saturday. What do they get out of it? Is it just playing with new teams? Is it exposure to the conferences? Is it merely being around? Are there cheaper ways we can simulate this experience either at a local level (cut down travel costs) or with not bringing robot (cut down CMP competition size but increase conference count, make it more of an experience for spectators)?
[1] Cough Seahawks. Cough Cough. [2]
[2] Also, for the record, I think this is the first football comparison I've actually named a real team.
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You've obviously never been on one of those teams. As a team who has gone to champs many times, but has only played on Saturday twice (once going out in the quarters), I can say that we would not be the team we are today without those experiences. Our rookie year, when we had a mediocre bot, going to the championship truly changed our team and our students. We were inspired to better ourselves, and our community was inspired to get behind us (even though we got our butts kicked at the championship). I've been involved with my team since day one, and it took 7 trips to the championships before we ever got to play on Saturday. But our team and our students would definitely not be the same without those experiences.
We have also brought and seen many spectators at the event that are not involved with teams, and they love every second of it, even though not all the teams are what you would define as the best. Many of these powerhouses of today were once mediocre rookie teams that were inspired because they got to bring their robot and "play with the big kids" once.