[Doug Leppard]

Excellent comments Al.

Our team has consistently helped hurting teams, and they are not all rookies, many are below 1000 in team number. It takes a deep rich team to have the skills for the mechanical, pneumatics, electrical, programming and sensors. Much less PR and fund raising skills.

Even at championships 1/3 of the teams couldn't drive forward to get the 4 points. Many teams we helped had electrical shorts or bad connected cables. Robotics, especially one that takes such abuse game after game is a complex challenge.

To me the biggest programming problem of teams is that the hardware is usually not done until shipping day, thus the programmers usually don't get the machine until that day or at competition.

I do hope they will allow a few teams (like 1902) to have the processor ahead of time if they have the commitment to help others. Our fear is that with a new system in competition there will be many problems and even the experienced teams will be scrambling to make it happen and will not be able to help others.

FIRST is committed to the kids and their future. I have high confidence they will do what is right and in the end this will work better for the kids. As a much older kid I am excited about a new toy and to be able to learn more myself.