The following statement may be elitist, mean, etc.
Pity passes are not a problem at all. The teams that get them are the teams that didn't read the rules well enough, and no team that unprepared for competition is going to have an effect on the eliminations anyway. (Unless this is Bayou 2010...) The only other "eh, whatever" passes are for stuff like 488's bumpers which, though illegal, really had no effect whatsoever on the current regional event.
I'm beginning to wonder if "worry about your own team" is something that shouldn't just apply when you're thinking nasty thoughts about your favorite teams from IFI. To a certain extent, if a random kitbot team has a bolthead issue or something, maybe you should live and let live, being content with the knowledge that
you were the one to strive to read every rule of the rulebook and made sure your robot will never have anything of questionable legality. FIRST isn't supposed to be fair anyway, right?
