[meatmanek]

I would have to disagree. Veteran team still have an advantage in the game, it's just been equalized in the qualification rounds.

Unfortunately, there's no way to really eliminate the advantage that veteran teams have over rookies. Even if you make the game so different that the only things in common between each year's robot are the fact that they're robots, veteran teams will still have an advantage. They know all the right people, know the places to shop, and the students have more skills.

Is this a problem? I don't think so. It just means FIRST is accomplishing something. If the rookie teams were just as good as veteran teams, it would mean that FIRST hadn't taught the kids and teachers anything.

On a side note, it'd be really cool if they made the KOP and robot rules drastically different each year. Imagine if next year your robots were gas or glow fuel powered and played in a grass field or sand pit or mud pile. And then the year after that, we'd be playing with ultra-lightweight blimp robots.