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Unread 13-11-2001, 12:31
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Jason Morrella Jason Morrella is offline
Robotics Education and Competition
AKA: J-Mo
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different perspective

By the previous replies, it seems obvious that this issue is viewed differently depending on which side of the country you are on. While initially it sounds great that all teams get to keep their robots for 3 days after a competition, I have to disagree "at this point in time."

Two years ago, when FIRST made the rule fair & consistent for all teams and said all robots were shippped directly from each event (no time to take home), the arguement was that broken robots would be much more frequent at the following reigonals. But this did not turn out to happen, as the regionals were all very successful, and the same percentage of teams, if not more, had fully functional robots at the regionals compared to the year before. Teams knew the rule, they prepared for it, repaired parts at home and brought them to the events, etc. But the rule did NOT result in more broken down robots at the competition.

I can understand letting the rule stand a couple years ago, when there were only a handful of teams west of the Mississippi. But now, if you drew a line from the east of Texas up to N. Dakota, you would find that over 250 teams are in these states. But only 4 regionals covering about 20 states!

With the current situation, the "keep your robot for 3 days" is completely unfair - as almost all of those 250 teams can not. I understand the Eastern US & Michigan teams want to keep the rule as they are able to benefit from it, but my feeling is that the numbers are to the point where it is just too unfair to too many teams. The teams east of the Mississippi already have the inherent advantage of having 13 regionals to compete in, saving all that travel money, & getting more time with the robot at multiple competitions. Is an even bigger advantage really needed?

If people are really interested in having a somewhat fair playing field, I think the rule should go back to "ship directly from the event" - at least for 2 or 3 years until there are 25 regionals or so, and a high percentage of teams would be able to keep their robots to work on them.

Again, the "ship direct" rule did not cause the problems people fear it would 2 years ago, as teams adjusted & prepared very well. Out west, keeping the robot would only help the teams in LA & SJ, but my concern is for all the teams in Arizona, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Colorado, the Dakota's, etc.... FIRST is a nationwide community now and I think the rules should reflect this - not giving VERY LARGE advantages to some regions over others. Hopefully in a couple years, 80-90% of teams will have local regionals, not just some, at which point it would be fair to let teams keep their robots for a couple days.

(on a side note, many coaches I know LOVED having the robot gone & shipped. Gave everyone a couple days to recoup, address their "regular" life apart from the robot, spend a little time with family, plus the kids can catch up a little in school - all nice aspects of the "can't keep the robot" rule.)

My 2 cents.

Last edited by Jason Morrella : 13-11-2001 at 13:19.
 


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