[Tom Bottiglieri]

I really liked when FIRST released the how-to video for the 2005 kit bot. If you had a hard time reading the drawings, you could follow the directions from the video. I think videos like this would help anyone who would take the time to learn something new. Their robot may not be amazing on the first shot, but over time will be great.

I also think teams need to learn how to properly engineer their robot. I know my old team, and can assume many teams, fell into the trap of designing the bot based on another team's old design. This is bad for two reasons: A) It stifles the creativity of team members, and B) limits the amount of things you can do efficiently because you are stuck to a certain design. Look at Team 195's robot. Do the mechanisms from 2005 and 2006 look surprisingly similar to those of 254 and 33? You be the judge.

An informed engineering process where the design is based off goals, not one where goals are based off design will win 9 times out of 10.