[GaryVoshol]

An interesting topic. There were robots that were not able to take the field on Friday morning at both GLR and Detroit.

I think there needs to be a distinction made between bots that break, and bots that never made it in the first place. Those that didn't make a complete/correct robot during 6 weeks of build, and can't complete it on Thurdsay, should not get points for rounds in which they can't compete, until they finally get their bot on the floor. Yes, that means on Friday someone needs to keep track of a list of teams and check them off when they report to the floor. (Although I can see an easy way around that - you put a non-functional robot on the field to avoid a DQ. So I don't know if that rule would work.)

Incidentally, in Q3 at Detroit, 123's bot won the match single-handedly - it can be done.

The suggestion to help your alliance partners is a good one - but it doesn't solve the problem of those early Friday matches. The schedules aren't distributed far enough in advance - teams come to the field for the first several rounds without even having a strategy defined, much less knowing whether or not the partner's robot is functional. If qualifying match schedules could be passed out on Thursday afternoon, teams could begin to consult their alliance partners before pits close Thursday evening, offering help where needed.