[skimoose]

I'm not happy with this decision mostly from one standpoint that has not been stated yet. MONEY!

If you're a struggling team, $275 for FTC registration, then $749 for a FTC kit. An extra $1000 just to create your own minibot. Oh but wait, if I spend even more money and compete in an official FTC event, I can get $500 off my FRC registration next year... now that's some incentive. Oh and I'd have to buy more FTC hardware or dismantle my minibot to build an FTC robot. It just keeps getting better.

Secondly, has anyone thought about what the minibot costs will do to their $3500 robot budget?!?! Robot = Hostbot + Minibot, remember that in the rules. The minibot is not exempted from your BOM budget as the rules currently are written unless I missed it. FIRST, how do I deal with budgeting a foreign FTC team's (not my own FRC team's) minibot, and if my local FTC teams are still competing or are eligible to go to St. Louis, they're going to take their FTC robot apart to make a Minibot for my team. I doubt it.