Don't get me wrong, but what I think is irrelevant--the rules say we have to ship the batteries, and even if I don't want to ship the batteries, I will ship the batteries, for no other reason than the fact that the rules say to ship the batteries.
However, our team has many, *many* old batteries that, while aren't competition-legal, are equivalent to the batteries we have to ship, so practice with our practice bot won't be hurt at all. The bigger blow is that we have to ship the controls. Usually that's a 6-1/2 / 7th week project...
I'm not worried about the battery rule. I see no problem with it.
JBot