Thread: Why Six Weeks?
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Unread 15-02-2004, 00:44
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Post Re: Why Six Weeks?

I'm just a nobody, so this of course isn't an official response.. but I have a couple of hunches.

I know that for a lot of teams... a burn-out occurs after 4 or 5 weeks. Imagine having to go for 8! While one could make the arguement that if we had an extra 2 weeks, we could meet less often... but I don't know how many teams would really do that.

I think what's important to remember is that 6 weeks is part of the challenge. It's honestly not enough time to make a truly great robot. If FIRST wanted to see really great robots, they'd release the game in early September and we'd compete in mid-March. However, I think that the blitz build is what makes FIRST so interesting. It's NOT enough time to do a quality job on every single part. You have 6 weeks to create a robot that will have 90 minutes of actually playing time.

Powerhouse teams with infinite resources are still under the same crunch time, which is perhaps the one factor that somewhat levels the field. More time would ultimately seperate the haves from the have-nots more than it would even it, in my opinion.

Now what about giving rookies more time, say.. 8 weeks? I think that will just end up having a lot of 2nd year teams truly hurting. It's sort of like playing a veteran chess player minus their queen... it's fun the first time and builds false self-confidence.

Just a few thoughts. Good luck this year!

Matt
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Team 1525 - Warbots - Deerfield High School
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