Quote:
Originally posted by verdeyw
I meant that the three days wouldn't help you fix the robot two minutes before the final match. You would still have to sit out the final match, and hope that you have a good partner.
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You are correct. However, I think Nick was referring to something else. If you break your gear box in the last match of the regional, you then have to ship your robot in the next hour. Therefore, you cannot get your gearbox fixed before the next competition. When you get to the next competition, you are limited to hand tools and the inadequate shop facilities that are provided. These tools are not going to repair something as complex as a gear box. It would be nice to at least be able to take the gearbox with you, fix it, and ship it by Tuesday.
One big problem with this ruling is that it provides some motivation to not be in the finals. If you're not in the finals, you get an extra three hours or so of pit time to fix your robot before it ships. If you're in the finals, you only have the time from your last match to when they start hauling boxes away. If you play in the last match, that might only be 30 minutes.
I believe the original intent of this rule is to stop drastic redesigns of robots as well as limit the practice time with the robot (so teams don't get huge practice advantages by going to a bunch of regionals). I don't see any problem with allowing teams to take home their broken parts so they can fix them. If they want to keep teams from spending three weeks "fixing" them, then make a rule that the replacement parts must be shipped by Tuesday.