Listen, I am going to assume the GDC thought of teams hanging from the vertical poles.
And they are steel bars affixed at both ends. Maybe if there were 3 robots (~500 lbs) hanging 6 feet directly out from the tower, the thing may bend, but (I don't think) brittle fracture would occur. But if you have 2 robots hanging off your robot in that orientation, your robot's arm will bend way before the steel support (unless your arm is a firmly planted pole of equal size).
If we know the phase, thickness, and modulus, we can calculate yield stress and whether the bar will fail catastrophically. Maybe the K1c value too
...
Coolness factor outweighs riskiness IMO.