[kborer22]

GP is an ideal that everyone should try and follow as best as possible, but being sort of an abstract thing, with an evolving meaning, it's hard to starndardize it. Most teams are not out to intentionally damage other robots but it is something that happens. Unless there is a plan on cloning Woody and Dean and giving a set of them all teams, opinions on GP are going to differ. I was on (MORT 11 in HS and now 125) and in both cases have experienced non-GP. We have been picked for alliances where we have been told this is what your doing and thats that, by an adult on the team, and we knew our strategy was better but there was nothign we could do about it.

I am on a college team in the Boston Area and can see how things could get out of hand quickly at an event. If a new team is completely inexperienced and has no idea how the are supposed to interact with the other teams, then things are going to happen. We mentor about 6 teams directly and another 9-10 indriectly, and one of the things we give them advice about is what its like on the field. Hopefully through our mentoring they will see how teams should be run and help others (we have our problems like everyone else) and how to carry themselves. But if a mentor wants a team behave in a certain way/let the kids do whatever they want then we may make a suggestions as to what they need to change, but in the end it's how they want to run it.