[tjwolter]

"So either teams are too proud to just copy Ri3D and hone their reliability and driver skill to field a competitive robot, or teams aren't able to translate the design they see in a video into an equally competitive robot."

Umm...how much would a young team learn by just copying an admittedly cool robot? We are supposed to be training Engineers not RetroEngineers. Or strictly speaking, just well trained Robot Jockeys.

As a mentor I would be much happier with a crazy, innovative but ultimately less or even unsuccessful design.

T. Wolter