[Katie Reynolds]

Originally Posted by Drew

There is no creativity in these bots but the original designs. Its almost like, We cant figure out how to do this game so lets wait until another team gets an idea and let them give us the fabrication idea's parts, and help.

It's unfair to assume that teams with brother/sister/clone bots just couldn't figure out what they wanted to do, so they jumped onboard with a team that did. Do you know how the NiagraFIRST teams collaborate? How about the backstory of teams #70 and #494?

At the Milwaukee regional, I was curious about these two teams, as 70 was a pretty low number and I'd never heard of the "More Martians" before. So I asked a mentor for the teams about it and he filled me in. Bottom line: the Martians (494) did a pretty cool thing for a fellow team at their high school that was going under.

Originally Posted by Drew

Why is this, It kind of seems unfair.

Dean Kamen has said it numerous times - FIRST isn't supposed to be "fair".

• It isn't "fair" that Team XXX has a $100,000 budget, while Team YYY has $7,000 and Team ZZZ has $35,000.
• It isn't "fair" that Team XXX has a full machine shop at their disposal, while Team YYY has only handtools and a bansaw and Team ZZZ has only a machine shop to make parts for them - that they can't use.
• It isn't "fair" that Team XXX has 25 professional engineers and 15 high school students, while Team YYY has 30 high school students and 10 college mentors, and Team ZZZ has 5 professional mentors, 5 parents and 10 students.
• It isn't "fair" that the professionals on Team XXX build the robot, while the college students on Team YYY build theres, and the students on Team ZZZ do all their team's work.

But that's the way FIRST is supposed to work - as a microcosm of the "real world", and in the real world things aren't always fair. That's part of the challenge.

Originally Posted by Stuart

how inspirational can it be to not build and design your own robot

Who's to say what inspires someone and what doesn't? I could only be inspired by watching someone build a robot, while you could only be inspired by building it yourself. I could be inspired by playing music, while you could be inspired by listening to it. Inspiration is a funny thing, because people become inspired about the same things, in totally opposite ways.

I think everyone who's questioning these teams should talk to them about how they went through the design and fabrication process - you might just learn something yourself.