Several very experienced folks have already contributed to this thread, so I will limit my own response accordingly.
Team 1625 should be extremely proud of their performance and competitiveness at the 2006 St. Louis Regional. All of their students and mentors that I met conducted themselves as gracious professionals. And their robot was clearly well designed and well built, based both on detailed inspection and, more significantly, on performance in competition. Their performance was also recognized by the
Autodesk Visualization Award and the Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology Award.
There were some complaints about their shooter's muzzle velocity; on two (maybe three?) occasions the head referee ordered ball speed tests. As lead robot inspector the task fell to me to ensure (using the FIRST-supplied ball speedometer device) that 1625 was complying with the muzzle velocity rule <S02> and it is the consensus of all St. Louis officials that they were. I believe the complaints stemmed mainly from competitive envy -- their shooter was easily the most effective at the regional.
On behalf of the St. Louis Regional and of my team (931) I want to congratulate 1625, and to repeat what I told many of them personally yesterday -- we would love to see you again in St. Louis every year.
__________________
Richard Wallace
Mentor since 2011 for FRC 3620 Average Joes (St. Joseph, Michigan)
Mentor 2002-10 for FRC 931 Perpetual Chaos (St. Louis, Missouri)
since 2003
I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.
(Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97)