[GaryVoshol]

Regarding MI district experience, I don't have facts but do have anecdotes. There were several matches on Friday morning that were missing more than 1 robot. The official scorers had to decide amongst themselves which empty trailer was assigned to Missing Team X and which to Missing Team Y (both on the same alliance). As I recall, most teams that did miss matches only missed one or two. And not all teams took advantage of Thursday load-in and early inspection, which could have added to the problems with late inspections on Friday.

However I can only remember a few catastrophic problems. One team had misread the bumper rules, and the only way to fix it was to redesign and rebuild their basic frame shape. Another team chose to not come to the field all day in order to rebuild their primary cell-handling mechanism in anticipation of competing at their next event.

Remember, an unaccompanied trailer was a huge detriment in this year's game. Other games were much more forgiving when your alliance was down a robot. Not that we shouldn't strive for playing every game with every robot.