[Chris is me]

This competition is about the students, not about the robots.

The competition is not about the students. The competition isn't to find the smartest or hardest working team of students in the US. This is not a "high school robotics competition" in the sense that you're trying to find out whose high school students are the best engineers. Try and find a bit of FIRST press that says otherwise.

The amount of knowledge that is imparted by students building and designing the robot is immense, and every time that a mentor helps with the bot is an opportunity to learn lost.

I guess the only reason I help with 2791 is to steal opportunities from my students. I guess I should quit this FIRST thing then... I mean, if I do anything on the team, I'm taking away opportunities, so FIRST I guess shouldn't have mentors then.

Originally Posted by Edoc'sil

I see the value of the 50/50 argument, but I believe that in reality it leans more towards 60/40, 70/30 in reality with the students doing less and less work with the mentors solving the problems when the kids get stuck on a problem.

Have you ever been on a 50/50 team? How would you know, or have the slightest idea, whether or not this is the case?

If the students can't build a robot like this I have little respect for your team. I admire the hard work and long hours many teams put into their robots, and when I compare student built robots to mentor built ones I find mentor bots to be extremely lacking, despite their fluid design and effectiveness.

Every 90+% mentor robot I've ever seen in FIRST is a piece of crap. The teams that know how to build good robots are the same teams that know how to build good teams, and they engage the students every step of the way.