[ebarker]

"Ideas are cheap,The combination of ideas and execution and excellence and the whole process is what really matters."

Woodie Flowers

My point - you will see a lot of team "work in secret".

There are about 1700 teams - the challenge is announced - and everyone show up to competition and there are only 3 or 4 basic concepts.

The difference is in in the execution.

A corollary - teams work in unison sharing ideas, they may as well because ideas are cheap. And there robots differ by their ability to execute their ideas.

Cooperative competition is way more fulfilling. And it is a long journey between today and the final rounds of a regional competition, A LONG way.