[Jeff Waegelin]

In my time in FIRST, I've built both types of robots. While we've never had one that looks awful, per se, we have had some that were definitely just basic robots that could win. Our 2002 and 2003 robots were examples of that. Neither robot had much to it; just a two-speed drive base, and lead screw driven grabber arms (2002) or wings (2003). However, we made division finalist at Nats both times, because we had a simple robot, with good drivers and good strategy.

On the other hand, our 2001 and 2004 bots went the opposite direction. Both times, we tried to do something bigger and fancier: a big, complex arm in 2001, and swerve drive in 2004. While both robots were high-quality (after some work), they were too complex to be successful.

So, in my mind... I'd rather have a winning robot, no matter what it looks like or does. You have to have a good degree of quality, or it won't win anyways, but you don't need it to be fancy, either.