After Reading the thread by Martin on unfairness...
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...=&postid=21716
...and the student/machine-shop teams VS. engineer/big-sponsor teams
The problem, imho, seems stems from the nature of this years game.
There isn't a complex strategy or challenge to acually building a neat robot. All you have to do is build a TANK and that's what most of the experienced teams and the ones I've seen are doing.
Is there a challenge in creating a TANK? The largest monster, which has the greatest gear reductiuon will win. That means the teams with the greatest resources.
There is no incentive to build an interesting robot, or to even manipulate balls.
This years challenge has become another version of BattleBot, that's right, BattleBots. Imho, that is.
If this years game depended on how creatively you could solve a problem, rather than building the biggest baddest tugging machine, then perhaps it would not depend as much on the resources of a team and make it more fair between big-sponsor/engineer teams VS. student/machine-shop teams.