[Jack Jones]

Well, here it is, a little over six weeks since the last post on this topic. Could it be that all the confusion about this rule has been cleared up, and I missed the seeing it in the updates? Or, could it be that the rule is so totally bizarre that we’ve decided not to talk about it?

I don’t know about the rest of you, but we spent the week following the fix-it window finishing our practice robot. We’ve spent the time since that practicing and upgrading. Err, at least planning upgrades, to include prototyping.

How they think that the rule encourages us to take a break is beyond me. We would have loved to have taken the two days off after shipping, but instead we had to scramble making & assembling replacement parts for just about everything we suspected had a snowball’s chance of breaking.

The rules state, “…teams may bring SPARE, REPLACEMENT and UPGRADE PARTS and COTS items to the competitions (within the limits specified in Rules <R23> and <R24>).”; but it also states “During the ’FIX-IT WINDOW’ … Teams may manufacture SPARE and REPLACEMENT PARTS for their robot at their home facility. Fabrication of UPGRADE PARTS is not permitted during this period.” So where is it they expect us to come up with those UPGRADE PARTS we’re allowed to bring?

If they intended to level the playing field with this rule, then they have missed completely. It used to be that teams who went to many regionals had greater opportunity to work on their robot than those who only went to one. Now it is that teams who go to many regionals have more fix-it windows that those who don’t.

Finally, the rules state, “following the last Regional Event a team attends (i.e. prior to attending the FIRST Championship): Teams may manufacture SPARE, REPLACEMENT and UPGRADE PARTS for their robot at their home facility (not at the competition site).” Imagine that your team has just won a regional or one of the other three awards that newly qualify them for the Nats. You suddenly realize that, in addition to raising the money and making the arrangements, you have two days to design, fab, build, and perfect all those UPGRADES that others who pre-qualified have had months to plan. How is that fair???