[kapolavery]

I think the HP fitted the theme of the game though and what FIRST is about: real life applications, humans interacting with robots to get a task done, etc.

In a way, this years game was understandable too, as our Lt. Governor put it during his speech at the Hawaii regional "the human element" made it more friendly.
Its understandable though why the HP was disliked, since it had a tremendous effect on the outcome of the game.
But it sort of allowed rookie teams to have an advantage and fighting chance against teams that have been doing this for the past decade. I thought it was interesting to see rookie teams beating vet teams since they had a good HP and at times a good Defensive bot. In this way rookie teams didnt have to contend with making something theyve never done before, especially if they didnt have the sponsors/mentors/engineers/motiviation/inspiration/funds/facilities etc.

I liked how there were multiple ways to tackle the challenge, and all of them would work depending on the circumstances.