[Justin M.]

Well, the thing with FIRST is that you need to build your robot to expect the unexpected. You basically laid down the deal for robot design in your own post - if you bot gets slammed, and the arm breaks, then the penalties are assessed but you still have a broken arm. Build an arm that doesn't break. Your bot needs to be able to take a serious beating this year, because with 5 other bots flying around at full speed you can expect at least a few crashes.