Quote:
Originally Posted by JABianchi
Respectfully, there are very few teams in the same league as 254! 
I would be curious to know how far down the FRC totem pole your sentiments run true. If you represent the top 1% who make a habit of winning multiple regionals each year, does your statement about 254's lack of value from eliminating stop build hold true for the top 5%? 10%? 20%?
If we graphed (the value-added to robot performance by eliminating stop-build) vs. (some measure of competitive performance), I would assume that some parts would show a mildly rising slope while further on it may level off. Perhaps my feelings about this proposal are indicative of where my team is on that curve.
I appreciate the reply and information. Perhaps the dialogue on CD can be even more informative for FIRST than the poorly worded survey. |
I did a poll in an Arizona FRC group on Facebook during the season asking which teams had a practice bot. 13 of the 50 Arizona teams confirmed that they do in fact build a practice bot. That is just of those that responded too. I'm relatively sure there are others too but can't confirm for sure. Even with 13 though, 25% of Arizona teams have a huge competitive edge over the other 75%. Now none of the Arizona FRC teams are a 254 and I'd imagine removing build day would be a big help even to the teams that build practice robots here. However, I personally think it would be an even bigger help to those that don't have the resources to build one.
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Another point I'd like to make is that bag day removal would help balance the scales for regional vs district teams. I know the goal is to make every region a district but that isn't going to happen anytime soon for a lot of places including the south west. District teams get more hands on time with the competition robot from more matches per event and two of them, two 6 hour open bag periods in their shop, and if they do well, a state championship. Overall they get way more practice and development with the competition bot than a regional team even if the regional team also builds a practice bot. Giving all teams equal access to the competition robot would be a way to make things more fair between a district and regional team. This I feel is especially important when it comes to the two championships where North got almost all the districts and South got mostly regional teams. Who knows, maybe removing bag day would even make South champs a much stronger event than what it is predicted to be, especially for low to mid tier teams.