[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Abwehr

While I agree with most of your points, I think you do need to consider what a "superpower" team looks like from the outside looking in.

Essentially, all teams start the season with the same basic resources - a kit of parts, a game description, and six weeks.

Now imagine you're a kid on a small team with a limited budget and mentor resources. You work for 8 hours after school each day, plus weekends, and finally show up at competition with something made of your own blood, sweat, and tears. It probably is a little homemade looking, maybe it works okay most of the time, but it is your own small victory after six weeks of hell.

Then you look in the pit next to you and see a robot that looks like it was ordered out of a catalog.

As an adult, how would that make you feel? I sure would be jealous!

Now, as a high school aged-student, how would that make you feel? Are you telling me that a 16-18 year old has the emotional maturity to not feel bad - even a little - about his own showing when kids the same age are sitting next to a future FIRST championship winner?

Life isn't fair, and FIRST isn't either. That's a hard lesson for a kid to learn.

This post has some merit. I would be lying if I said during our first several years, as lucky as we have been, that I wasn't jealous of those awesome robots from 100, 115, 254, 192, 368, etc. from the SVR regional. Our students and a few of the mentors were very very intimidated.
Everyone in the last several posts have offered positive solutions. It seems Dan that you feel that the solution of "joining" the group is not the solution.

Then I ask, what do you suggest teams do?
1. Dumb down everything so that we have a level playing field, no engineers whatsover?
2 Or embrace the challenge, hustle to find support, and step it up in order to "join the group"

We chose "step it up" and join the group attitude. We are far from it, but its our inspiring attitude. Just several years ago, we got a judges sheet showing the areas we needed to improve on the Chairman's Award. I was disheartened. More areas were "needed improvement" than the good areas. I had a few thoughts about just forgetting about enteriing already and let it be. Instead, we worked hard to build up our program the last several years. The feeling of winning the CA is priceless and will stay with us for years, knowing what we had to do earn it.
Now looking back at when we had the choice to step it up or dumb down everything, the proof is asking the students what has been more inspiring to them, as I have many students/former students still on the team the last several years.

They will ALL tell you, they like the program as it is now, and still want to strive it to be better.