[abrockhoff]

I don't think that the Niagara triplets style of a build season should be supported by FIRST. Three teams building the same robot does nothing except increase the chance of that robot design winning the championship. If they are really as good as everyone says they are, then this is only a result of the shared resources of three teams creating a single robot design, by themselves I doubt these teams could achieve such results. If you want to have a large member base for diverse design ideas, then create a single, large team, don't increase your probability of winning by acting as a single team and building three identical robots.

I don't mean to start any rants, but think about it for a second. Imagine if a veteran team split up and created the same robot on each team, entering the three of them into the competition, and then won with the three of them on an alliance. There would probably quite an uproar from the rest of the community. The Niagara Triplets system is just a step in the direction of a team monopoly on championships.

Obviously what they did is not against any rules, and this post is just an opinion, but I'm curious as what other's think about how these teams built their robots.