Posted by Patrick Butler at 05/13/2001 9:39 AM EST
Student on team #122, NASA Knights, from NHGS and NASA Langley Research Center.
In Reply to: We still need people to sign our Petition
Posted by Kyle Fenton on 05/09/2001 1:54 PM EST:
: Team 121 is still looking for people to sign our
etition. We want to restore 2v2 and to expand the
arts list beyond what Small Parts can provide for us.
My 2 cents:
I don't think that it should change anymore than Dean wants it to. He has a good enough imagination. He'll do what needs to be done. Don't try to tell him how it should be done.
If he thinks FIRST needs nuclear powered robots built from a few rubber bands and chewing gum wrappers, he'll ask for it. And you know what? We'll do it, and we'll do it twice as good as he may have expected. Why? Because we all love the sport, this game is about learning, if we stick to the same format for eternity then we won't learn.
I personally want something new, maybe 4v0 maybe not. We will get something new no matter what. I don't think we should be influencing the guy at all; sit back and let him, and Woody, and whoever else wants to do the thinking, do it on their own. It's their call, even if it seems to us they were trippin' when they decided the rules. If the game is not a great spectators sport, who cares you learn from building and this year we all learned almost as much from playing (good thing).
If you feel like this year was a disappointment, please feel free to join battlebots. I don't necessarily believe in no violence ever, as Woody or Dean might, I believe it has its unfortunate uses, such as counteracting worse acts of violence, but the point they made was well made, you don't need violence or competition to have fun, only knowledge, your hands and a few tools.
Those of you who worry about the spectatibility of FIRST, probably don't have to worry as next year it will get so much media (with IT being unveiled at Nats supposedly) that it will probably a factor of consideration.
Patrik