[Gui Cavalcanti]

I believe that practicing after ship date is a huge con for students. My main argument is that FIRST is supposed to be a simulation of the real world of engineering; you don't wait to test and refine a product until after it has shipped! If you are designing a product, you must factor in appropriate refinement time during it's development cycle. If you want to field an advanced robot, I believe you have to accept the fact you may not have the time to test all of its systems before competition. FIRST is as much an experience in management as it is in engineering.

As an additional con, what happens to teams that do not have the funds to create a practice robot, yet participate in one of the last regionals? Some teams may have had a month or so of pure practice time with their mock-up robots.

If you are going to argue that unfairness mirrors real-world engineering, remember that deadlines and proper scheduling also reflect real-world engineering.