[fnsnet]

I must agree with Dave. Teams seem to go out and buy the hardware they need to solve a problem ready made, instead of building a solution themselves.

The problem is, relaxing the presure of overcoming obsticles in the competition would undermind the whole idea of FIRST. The idea is to give students chalanging problems with no clear and obvous solutions. This promises that no two teams will have the same idea to solving the same problem, get every student thinking, and it gets the brainwaves flowing around the room. If FIRST gave the students all the answers upfront, the challange would be gone, and the inspiration part of FIRST would vanish; replaced with an apathy for "building the same old robot." With each passing year, I look forward to hearing what limits FIRST places on the students, and I enjoy watching the minds of the students churn as they sit around talking about how they could overcome; creating solutions.

My moto:
If I can tell any old joe that knows nothing about the competition about the game that needs to be played, and he understands it the first time I tell him, then it's failing in it's mission.

Don't think of FIRST's limits as stupid anoyances, think of them as challanges that you must overcome, together as a team. We are drawing the line in the sand... don't whine about it, step up the the challange.