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A couple of points
First of all, we all need to understand a few things:
1. Pit scouting is different than match scouting. Pit scouting is when you walk up to another team's pit and interview a person about how their robot is SUPPOSED to perform. Match scouting is recording the performance of a robot during the match.
Every single team in the past has overestimated how their robot performs in the match. We don't plan on our robots to break down, our student drivers to freeze under pressure or another robot to get caught in our drive train.
We just need to deal with this and understand that what is said in the pits is different than what is seen on the field.
2. The 2002 game is different than the 2001 game. 2001 was a nasty game when it came to depending on another team to do their job. Since some jobs could only be done by 1 team (balancing the goals) at a time, the other three were at the mercy of the team doing this one job. This year, since there is no single task that must be done by only one team, it won't be as much of a problem.
Teams will have more ability to be able to prove what their machine can do. There will be less of this sort of discussion:
"no, you can't go and pick up balls... we're going to be doing that"
All in all, I agree that teams MUST BE HONEST when they are telling other teams about how their robot performs. It only hurts both teams when people exaggerate too much or out and out lie.
But...
Teams will have more freedom to prove what they can do this year. Don't simply scout their practice matches or their pits... scout their seeding matches also, and see how teams are improving over the course of a competition. A team who can't get the job done during the early stages of a regional may find a fix and get their bot working by the end.
Andy B.
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