[dhitchco]

I had to go back and re-read the original question posed at the beginning of this thread. As so many of you have said,

a) If you attend more than one regional and have won award "XYZ" at the first regional, yes, the gracious thing to do is to recuse yourself from the pool of teams to win the same award at a 2nd regional. It doesn't buy you anything except bragging rights and more lexan trophies.

b) If you do choose this path, it should be done with the judges in private (via a team written petittion). It should NOT be announced that "team 9999 withdrew so instead we gave it to team 0000"

c) Now, if you win an award at a regional that gets you into the "big dance" at the world championship, then it's perfectly OK to verbally tell the judges that "we were in consideration for award XYZ at our 2nd regional, but we graciously withdrew our team from the running...."

d) Another way to look at it is to have a MASTER PLAN if you are going to attend more than one regional. make a decision to focus on award XYZ at the first regional and then re-focus on award 999 at the next regional. If you don't get award XYZ at your first regional, then go for both awards at your second regional. But stay focused.

Just remember.....IT'S NOT ABOUT THE ROBOT