[gblake]

Disclaimer: I have not studied the rules - This is based on what I heard during Kick Off.

The Dave/Woody/Dean trio emphasized that teams may share mini-Bots with other teams.

At least on the surface this would mean that an overseas team, or a Michigan team or a ___ team could contact another team or two that
1) Will be at the same regional, (or is an FTC-only team near that regional???).
2) Has experience using the Tetrix equipment well,
3) Has a large-enough stockpile of Tetrix equipment that won't already be in use for FTC events, and
4) That would enjoy forming friendships with a team that isn't Tetrix-savvy.

Ask them to build 2-3 mini-bots and let your team use one. They can help you keep it in good working order during the event and they can collaborate with you to design how to deploy it.

I suspect that more than one team will do this just for the GP fun of it, without having any specific partners.

Also if a team has a lightning-fast mini-bot, then they will obviously want to offer to loan a copy to their allies in each match. I think that building an ordinary hostbot and two copies of the world's best (fast, easy to deploy, and RELIABLE) mini-bot is likely to get a team invited onto an elimination alliance (30+20 points is significant contribution to an alliance's bottom line).

So, teams that aren't able to emphasize the mini-bot construction, can emphasize the other parts of the game AND being able to deploy loaned mini-bots.

Blake
PS: If, for example, a London FRC team wanted to collaborate with a Virginia FTC-only team, and use (in every match) a mini-bot the FTC team built, the London team should confirm (in the official Q&A) that combining the FTC team's people and equipment with their FRC team would be legal. The GDC might only allow FRC teams to borrow mini-bots from the other FRC teams that are in their alliance for any given match.