Originally Posted by Mr. Pockets

Just curious, how would FIRST go about "leveling the playing field" if that was their aim? This has been my first season, but the way I see it the mere fact that the game changes every year should be more than enough in terms of keeping things level.

The fact that the game always is changing means that teams always have to come up with new ideas to adapt to the new game environment. This gives an advantage to both sides.

Rookies come in with no preconceived notions of how things "should be done" and are theoretically more able to think outside the box, though they may lack the technical understanding that comes with experience.

Veterans have to forget much of the strategies and rules from previous years and develop a totally new mentality, but at the same time have greater experience

So in a sense FIRST naturally balances the playing field.

Originally Posted by bobwrit

I don't think it did level the playing feild. Mainly because of the influence of the human player on the game. Large teams have a larger talent pool to pick from so their more likely to have a realy good human player, and they could have a better chance of having a good driver, which was what it took to win.