[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

I love the photo of Dean Kamen making a set of bumpers illegal. It would have been entirely justified for an inspector to rule those bumpers illegal regardless of whose signature it was... but there is a point where discretion becomes important.

And that is why I would like to add one comment to the commentary on 488's bumpers that, while not particularly relevant to their legality, might help inform the discretion that was exercised in Seattle, at least.

488 could easily have fixed the bumpers. Their team, and mentors, are great at fixing problems. In fact, they spent a good chunk of the weekend fixing problems for many, many other teams. In addition to doing all the good, helpful things that top notch veteran FRC teams do, they also provided the machine shop and the crew to run it. If they absolutely HAD to fix those bumpers, they could have pulled a couple of their mentors from the machine shop, had them run out and get some new fabric, and had the bumpers fixed in a matter of hours. Instead, the mentors remained hard at work, helping teams with more significant problems, and less significant experience and resources, get their machines up and working. I think it was a good use of resources.

So at what point does the decision become inportant? Who decides where that point is? Should 'other factors' (such as running the machine shop) matter in that decision? Is it right that that decision point may be different at different regionals?

I'm sorry Jason, but I have to disagree with you. Allowing teams to play in violation of the rules (even the ones that 'dont give a competitive advantage') is wrong, and sends the wrong message to all teams (that the rules are not for everyone).