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a man from my town built a battlebot, clambot ......... and while they won the competition, it never got aired because it wasnt glamorous..... see that dissapoints me too, because comedy central just shows the robots that bring the ratings
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If it had won the competition, it would have been aired - one thing CC does is air every finals match no matter what happened. He might have won a fight... but it takes winning two or three to even start getting recorded.
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BB IQ has ONE event in ONE city in the country - which means if your school is not from that city, it will cost anywhere from 10-40k to participate
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I guess it's an issue of motivation - My team kept costs down by driving 17 hours straight to get there. Combined with 3K for the bot, I think we spent a total of 5k for the event.
Also, didn't FIRST only have one event in one city it's first time? I believe BB is going to regionals in the near future, so it will make this point moot.
Another point is that Battlebots are a bit more reusable - The first year of competition costs more, then most teams rebuild with parts they already have. FIRST is different every year, so they bots have to be totally rebuilt from scratch.
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I have spoke to many BB's teams who have spent 25-50k on their robots.
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For regular Battlebots, yeah, I'd expect that. I can pretty confidently say no BBIQ bot cost that much, though. If one did, they wasted some serious cash, as it didn't show up in the bot.
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Can FIRST or BB's find a way to make the game a TV draw (ratings) without selling out and giving into the way CC sells robotics (sex/violence)? That is the challenge I would like to see either/both programs tackle.
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BBIQ hasen't actually been on TV yet. Only regular BB has, and as I said, many BB builders disagree with how CC treats the show; That's just CC, not the competition itself.
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I have heard BB IQ supporters defend criticism by pointing out that high schools have wrestling teams. That is true - wrestling is a competitive sport with rules much like FIRST: train hard, try to be strong, fast, agile, powerful, smart, etc... but if you break rules such as bite, break an arm, poke a person in the eye, or try to cut the other wrestlers head off with a chain saw then YOU are the loser. BB IQ would be the equivalent of a school starting a WWF wrestling team - all the pre event training would hold value - but once competing, if the other competitor happens to be faster, stronger, bigger, smarter, more agile than you - then don't worry about training harder to come back better, you can still win if you just hit them over the head with a chair, bite them, poke them in the eye, or hey, just push them into a "kill saw". Any principal in the country would be fired instantly for supporting or promoting a WWF team to their students - and rightfully so.
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Umm, most of that stuff is highly against wrestling rules. BB bots operate within the confines of the rule sets. It's a totally different thing.
Overall, I find it pretty hard to believe that BB encourages real life violence, as many rabid FIRST supporters seem to say. This comes from the voice of experience, I've been heavily involved with Battlebots for years and haven't seen that as an issue at any point in time. And if you aren't saying it causes RL violence... then what's the problem?
Now, I'm going to be up front about something here. I really do think FIRST is a better program for some schools. I also think BBIQ is a better program for others. And most of all, I think that any school that can should do both - They are different challenges, require different ways of thinking, and both are educational in a different way.