[EricH]

Taking my best hack at future predictions...

1) I suspect that the Zondag System won't be in play in 2017. That would most likely class as a "major change" at HQ.
2) After the 2017 season wraps up, HQ will look more closely.

Given that there's a fair number of folks on the Stop Building side, more than the Don't Stop Building side, I rather suspect that Stop Build will stay in place for some time yet. I realize that that's going to be unpopular with the local vocals.

But here's the thing. There seems to be a fair amount of support for Don't Stop Building--getting up towards a decent tipping point, I suspect within the next few years. I don't think this issue will go away. At a best guess, there will be a change for 2018, and I would really strongly suspect that the Zondag System will be the original basis, but there will be some major changes that teams won't like.


There is, in fact, a precedent for the Zondag System. It's the FIX-IT Window, '05-'07ish, and it allowed teams to work on robot parts to be brought to their events even when other work was technically banned (and that was enforced by the robots being in a crate out of the teams' hands). There were a number of elements that teams didn't like, for a variety of reasons. Now taking bets on that system returning, with robot access instead of legal spare parts from after build as the primary benefit.