[Nate Laverdure]

In my opinion, it is unlikely that FIRST will never offer two different versions of the KOP. Think about all the companies and manufacturers that donate to FIRST. Their way of sponsoring this program is by donating their products to a kit that reaches over 2000 teams internationally. Even though there are items in the kit that some teams may not want to use, FIRST still has to make those items availible. My feeling is that the sponsors would be dissapointed- and annoyed- if they knew that although they had donated millions of their products to FIRST, some teams had refused to accept their donation.

Our team saw this excact situation this year with a certain piece of the KOP (I'm not going to say what it was). It was clearly a low-quality, last-minute addition to the kit, and it was of absolutely no value to our team. But nothing is free- somebody, somewhere had to pay for that piece of equipment. It would be unfair to the sponsor- not to mention ungracious and unprofessional- if we had refused that donation.