[Greg Needel]

So, I am with you all on this one and it would have been nice to get one in the kit. That being said there is no reason for all the bashing going on in this thread. Yes, things could have been handled differently. Yes, There is the potential that your mechanism will not function the same with the "real" balls vs walmart ones. The issue here is that people are brewing on it, which solves nothing.

I suggest you all be Proactive about the situation, figure out what could make a ball different and try your best to prepare. There is a lesson in this that I feel people are missing because they are blinded by their emotions. Sometimes stuff happens that is beyond your control and you can and should rise to the challenge to overcome the problem.

I hope that when people look back on their build season they won't blame the fact that they couldn't buy the exact ball on the reason their robot was not as successful this year, and will attribute your season's successes to the process and challenges your team had to overcome to finish the year. Don't be distracted by this, it will only put you behind in your design.

Now go design your robot and stop complaining.


Also if anyone who was able to buy a ball wants to do some leg work for other teams, take the real ball to $@#$@#$@#$@#$@# sporting goods and see what is close. While I am not a soccer player I find it hard to believe that there is a huge difference in such a low cost item. (if we were talking about 300 world cup balls I might buy into it).