Quote:
Originally Posted by pfreivald
Frankly, I'm surprised that anyone thought that a launch-bot would be allowed under this game -- whether thrown onto the tower or placed and then launched upward.
A. If you paid attention during kickoff, you knew what the intent of the MINIBOT race was.
B. Several pounds of metal and other stuff being launched into the air (either by itself or by the robot 'deploying' it), if it missed the pole due to any variety of easily forseeable circumstances (poor alignment, getting hit -- accidentally of course -- while deploying), hard enough to go ten feet up and still put out .5 lbs of force on impact... Can you say <S01>, kiddies? I knew you could!
The umbrage at this "change" (which is merely a clarification for anyone who read the rules as advised -- in their spirit instead of as a rules lawyer) is pretty funny. Seriously funny. In a funny but serious sort of way.
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Going 10 feet up and hitting with .5 lbs of force is "unsafe", while 165 pounds of robot flying across the field at 15 feet per second is?
Everything is relatively. I was pretty sure launching minibots was going out the window -- but I'm totally convinced it is possible to build a safe, mechanical powered minibot that would perform significantly better than the electric bots, and that would be more fun for the audience to watch. I'd still be annoyed if FIRST said we could only use a Vex controller and 2 Vex motors... I want a FIRST mousetrap car competition!