[Billfred]

Edit: Read Mark's post right below mine. Ignore this post, unless you're dying to read the spoiler with the original.

Spoiler for the old post:

I've enjoyed the six-week model, as have my grades and sanity. Still, forcing teams to reason out their design wouldn't be a terrible idea.

Suppose that at Kickoff, the Robot section of the manual was withheld along with the Kit of Parts. Teams would get the game, game pieces, and (obviously) the Kit of Parts section of the manual, giving them plenty to start hashing out design ideas until the following Friday or Saturday, when they receive their full kits and robot manuals.

This does mean that folks would have to make two trips to their Kickoff site, but it would force teams to prototype manipulators at the start of the build period instead of the "OMG SHIP IS TOMORROW WE NEED SOMETHING!!" approach that I'm sure I'm not alone in using at some point (and also not alone in getting poor results from). I wouldn't outright ban robot fabrication during such a period, but perhaps one or more of the judged awards could place an emphasis on design during this first week.

I could see such a concept reducing the number of manipulatorless bricks arriving at competitions, something that could make for a better competition all around. (That's from someone who's had a hand in three such bricks, each unintentionally designed as such.)