[archiver]

Posted by Kyle Fenton at 04/27/2001 2:58 PM EST


Student on team #121, Islanders, from Middletown High School and NUWC.


In Reply to: Defense-A Fancy Word For Poor Ability
Posted by Bill Beatty on 04/27/2001 12:42 AM EST:



Bill Beatty,
That is of course your own opinion. Which I have
no problem about. Everyone is entitled to their own
opinion.
"Maybe the ones that are saying they want
competition really do not want to try and compete."
But this year, it was not a competition, it was a
performance. A competition is where when 2
opposite forces meet, and the objective is trying to
work together with an outside force hindering you.
And for the most part, the people were cheering to
teams that screwed up, so their own teams were
bumbed up. Now, this is not a good way to display
gracious professionalism.
Unless there are multiple challenges next year, it
is not a really good idea, to bring back all 4. It is
usually 2 robots who do everything, and others just
sit and park. This year one picked up a big ball,
and the others tried to balance it. Well what about
the other 2? And what if robots you were picked
with, are the same abilities that you are, now what!.
If your robot wasn't agile, it didn't go far. And trying
to plan a strategy with team you only know 2
minutes in advance was very difficult.
"this competition was, by far, the most exciting,
electrifying of them all", you said. But yet, you also
won the national championship, so even I would
be happy of the competition if my team did that.

Look, I'm not trying to diss you, the only thing I'm
trying to say is all the people working together, is
not the real world!. And the real world people
compete.

With 2v2, you get to enjoy the satisfaction of
engineering. Trying to build an agile robot that
works well with another robot, to not only
accomplish a goal, but to compete with the other
team to get it.