Quote:
Originally Posted by Nigel
I don't see why questioning a design is not in the spirit of FIRST?
Mayhaps calling someone a cheater is not Graciously Professional, but is it not in the spirit of engineering and all of that to question everything? Am I supposed to accept a bot which is admittedly god-like as just being such and there is no way the team bent the rules? If this becomes the case, a) we aren't human anymore because being suspicious is of human nature, and b) there will be teams which abuse this and bend the rules. Did 469? No, of course not, and I'm not saying they would, but SOMEONE would be tempted if all designs went unchallenged. I'm all for giving 469 kudos for their kick-$@#$@#$@# robot, but I completely understand why people have questioned their design so thoroughly, and in fact, it is a good thing for THEM that people on here have because if you look in the "game breaker bot" thread, you'll find 469's general robot and all of the arguments and rules against it... all of the questioning... this helps those enterprising teams who try it by showing them everything that's going to be thrown at them and helps them plan around it.
Is it gp to cheer when hearing that the "god-bot"'s main strategy was thwarted? well professionals everywhere I know would cheer if their main competitor got the boot... would Apple not cheer if Microsoft was shut down? or vice versa? You mention how hurt you would be if after 6 weeks of work your robot was dq'd or people cheered when they thought it was, etc etc etc... what about if you spent 6 weeks working on a robot and it got eaten and the bones spit out in your matches because of a god-bot? how would you feel if that monster that was about to nom the heck outta your robot got its biggest, scariest fangs removed? you'd be pretty relieved huh? maybe even cheer because your baby for the last 6 weeks had a chance to grow up now? probably yes...
I'm just saying, its expected of human nature and observed in professional settings where people cheer when their main competitor goes under, and the questioning and nitpicking not only keeps everyone honest, but also helps those teams who are doing awesome by showing them all the potential issues with their design
I'm not attempting to bash 469 at all here, their bot absolutely dominates, and they're a great team, as are all the other big names out there, they're big names for a reason... I'm just agreeing with someone (i forget who) earlier with the tougher skin comment.
my $1.50
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The problem is not that people questioned 469's bot and its legality. I doubt many of us didn't immediately think, "are you sure that's legal?" upon hearing about 469's design for the first time.
The problem is with people who either (1) want the rules of the game to be changed after build season to specifically make 469's strategy illegal or (2) consider 469 to be "cheaters" in principle, despite following all of the rules, because they are winning in an unconventional manner.
Having said that, I do not believe very many of the above actually exist.