Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.G
FIRST try's to be fair to all teams but in the 9 years I have been involved in FIRST this has always bothered me.
Teams that have a lot of money have a big advantage.
1. They can afford to go to many events thus getting more time to practice and work on their robot.
2. They can build multiple robots so they can work on and practice with their “practice bot”.
Proposal:
Everyone keep their robot and work on it till they go to their first competition and then they take it with them to the competition.
1. Everyone will have the same amount of time to work on their robot.
2. Shipping costs will be less.
3. Teams can make changes and get better and learn more during the season.
4. Teams can practice locally with other teams.
5. There would be no need to build multiple robots.
I see this really helping rookie teams and small teams (which is most of us). If a team only goes to one event and it is a fourth week event they are tremendously disadvantaged because they are playing against teams that have been competing for 3 weeks. This way teams can watch and learn and make changes over the whole build season until they go to their event.
Students are most engaged in the robot at the end when the robot ships and after an event. Having the robot around this whole time will allow them to learn more and be more engaged.
Hope you support this please respond and if not please explain.
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I'm just reading this thread for the first time, and frankly, I can't agree with your argument, so I voted "I disagree."
How would you feel if you worked your hardest year in and year out to bring your team to the top only to be criticized by someone who apparently thinks you don't deserve what you have?
Teams don't just get rich...It takes a lot of work. The teams that put the most effort in deserve the most reward. FIRST isn't here to spoon feed new rules that intentionally bring down the teams that are the best to the level of teams that want to compete, but aren't willing to put in the same time and dedication.
One may feel as though they put as much effort as they can into their robot, but there's always someone who puts in more. If you don't have the time to put in as some other teams, that's fine.
You may not be able to beat the best teams, but you can certainly learn from them. And...by the way, FIRST's primary goal as an organization is to provide inspiration. If you put restrictions on the inspirational teams, they may not be able to achieve at the same level, and thus not be able to inspire people in the same way. I really look up to a lot of good teams and I would hate to see these teams limited by complaints of others. To me, this post is a takeaway from all the teams that truly put in the effort to achieve. The teams that put that effort in are the ones that inspire people, and the ones that truly exemplify what it means to be a model FIRST team. The teams that inspire are the ones that carry out the goals of FIRST and the ones that deserve the most praise.
And anyway...Does it really matter if the same teams win every year? I would say that the successful teams deserve everything they have. They have inspired me, and many others.
I'm not sure what the exigesis of your post was, but I have a quote from JVN that really shows what I'd like to say next "Never, NEVER stop striving to increase that output, and increase your inputs." He's basically saying that not all teams neccessarily operate on the same level, but if you increase your output given your inputs and if you're always trying to increase your inputs, you'll succeed. It takes time to grow a great team. It won't happen in one season. It takes time, dedication and effort.
Effort and motivation is what drives society forward, complaining won't get you anywhere. If you are dissatisfied with how you perform in relation to others, then try harder. If you don't want to try harder, then apparently you don't want it as much as the others, and thus don't deserve it as much. So take JVN's advice and keep striving to improve. Nothing is out of anyone's reach, and anything can be done.