Quote:
Originally Posted by waialua359
Here's something that no one has really elaborated on yet. What about student/mentor talent?
IMO, elite teams will always be elite teams no matter what rules you change. They are good not because they build 2 robots and continually iterate as the main reason. Its plain and simple.....talent.
I was blown away to here recently that teams could put in less than 1/2 the amount of time and build world class, Einstein ready robots.
I dont think you can do that with all the resources in the world or a change in schedule, without first and foremost the talent and experience to do so.
In Jim Zondag's white paper, he specifically names some example elite teams. Change the rules and they will STILL be elite.
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I don't think anyone is trying to bring the bottom 10% up to the level of the top 10%. The goal is to increase the level of play and capacities of all teams, so matches are more exciting and more inspiring. Robots sitting dead or unable to accomplish game objectives isn't an inspiring experience for most people, not if they continue to do that year in and year out. Teams that have to put completely untested mechanisms on the field and have them fail with little hope of improvement isn't inspiring. The best teams are the best because they have worked hard, and have passionate people that have gained great skill at this sport. That won't change but for the majority of teams that are just trying to play the game, I believe they will be helped by this change. I know for sure that the teams we mentor each year would be helped by this change. They could get more days at our machine shop. They could come with us when we go scrimmage with our friends in the area. There is so much more they can do. Right now we sometimes have to help them attempt to build upgrades for their WITHHOLDING ALLOWANCE with no knowledge if it will work on their robot because it's in the bag and they don't have a duplicate or an exact CAD model.
One of the strangest things we have to do most years is to explain to the teams we help why we are building two robots or explain why we get to keep working on our robot (they may not see the bagged one) but they have to have theirs in the bag. It takes a while for most people to fully grasp that concept.