[daf]

First off on mentor built vs. student built bots, I am all for student built. As far as which way is more inspiring...who cares... this is a high school competition, and should be left to the students (if students want to be inspired by watching someone do work, then go somewhere else). Don't get me wrong, we need the mentors to lead us and help us out etc etc; without them the experience wouldn't be half of what it is. But when I look at some teams where the students don't even touch the bot, it's unfair to the students on that particular team, other teams that compete against them, and also teams where the students really do build a super robot and everyone just assumes that the mentors did it. Now people can just jump to the conclusion that every robot that is good is mentor built. All I'm saying is that I think the mentor built bots ruin the competition for everyone.

Next off is the ranking system. I think it's fine. Yes the qualification matches have luck of the draw involved, but if your not in the top eight, then you can be chosen by another team. This is why they don't just take the top 24 teams of the ranking sheets. If you really are underrated due to an unfortunate draw, then get your team name out there and hopefully someone will choose you.