[dtengineering]

I'm intrigued by the game. My experience has been that it isn't the game itself that makes things fun and exciting, but rather what the teams do with it. The only year I came away from kickoff going "Yeah.... this is the coolest game EVER" was in '06. I never thought FIRST would let us SHOOT things! I'm not worried about seeing a lot of robots "the same" despite the size restrictions. When we had similar size limits in 06 at the two regionals I attended that year there was a huge degree of variety in the robots, well illustrated in the "Behind the Design" book from that season.

I don't think that teams who are from icy parts of the world will have any advantage over those from sunny places. Driving a robot is completely different from driving a car, not least in the sense that you don't have a "seat of the pants" feel for what your machine is doing.

What I AM concerned about is the availability of the Orbit Balls. I expect FIRST will be providing information on where they may be obtained, because it would be too ironic if FIRST were to ignore the COTS rules that teams have to follow...

Jason

P.S. One further concern is that the robot, at the end of the season, might not be a great demo robot because the first thing everyone will wonder is "why didn't they use good wheels?" Sure, lots of people will ask that and get the answer and learn about how that affected the design, but most will probably walk off thinking "Huh... I could do better than THAT."

P.P.S. And as for G14 being an attack on "Great Teams"... I am sure the truly Great teams will be able to take it in stride and still manage to shine. I'm not sure any team is shown at their "best" when they completely blow out a weak opposing alliance.