[JesseK]

I'll answer as many as I can.
1.) The FTC teams generally have their own tools except for snips, wire cutters, etc. Our FTC and FRC teams were very close to each other, but I think we were just lucky in that regard. Our mentors who did both FTC and FRC during the build simply chose one and stuck with them. That was to keep everyone from running around, remembering two match schedules, etc. Not having the leadership doing both is the toughest part -- our FRC team probably suffered some since the leader was primarily doing FTC. Yet such is life.

2.) Not sure -- I can't remember if they did 5 or 7 matches. I do remember that QP/RP were deal breakers, so teams who were dominating still had to score for their opponents to rank high.

3.) I would make improvements and work out the kinks with what you have. Perfect autonomous, improve the quality of subsystems, etc. In Atlanta '09, the FTC bots were scoring everything that they could score, and autonomous was the deal-breaker for who won the matches. I would expect to see matches with 400+ scores become common in eliminations. I know that one of our teams will be able to get 300 points (with BB) solo if left unchecked once they perfect it. They consistently got 100+ points this weekend and that was with alot of the subsystems being inconsistent. Since they have 2 more qualifiers and VA State left, they're looking at perfection in Atlanta -- not saying they'll get it, but they do remember last year and how there weren't any pucks left to score at the end of a match in Atlanta.

4.) Not sure.

A benefit of having both your FRC and FTC team at the championships means that more students can be there Wednesday to go through the FIRST Robotics Conference once inspections are completed (those happen on Wednesday, as do practice matches). I haven't looked to see if this year's FTC scheduling in Atlanta is the same as last year's though. Congrats on the win!