[EricH]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

As I recall, when the ship date was changed it was because the storm was on ship day. Either UPS wasn't coming to pick up robots, or the school was closed and locked up tight so the team didn't have access to be able to ship.

It's actually been changed twice. 2003 was weather as noted above. Pretty much the entire Northeast couldn't get to their robots, and if they could, FedEx couldn't. (CA teams enjoyed the bonus time...)

In 2004, the deadline was extended for all teams due to massive KOP issues. A lot of teams that year had missing parts, or something like that, even though they all got the KOP.

It's never been changed because one team, or one country, or anything like that got a KOP over a week after Kickoff.

To give some hope, one of the 2005 World Champs didn't cut metal for their custom frame until the end of Week 4/beginning of Week 5. Other teams were getting their custom frames back from powdercoating at that time. You should be using any time without a KOP to brainstorm, design, and plan for manufacturing. That way, when you get the KOP, everything falls into place and you can build in a week or two.