The 6 Week Build Season and 'Mentor Burnout'

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by EricH

They have done it in the past. Let's see how good my memory is... A couple years back, they went up to 60 or so due to what I'll call "special circumstances" due to my fuzzy memory (I want to say 2009 and weather). Back in my day... Oh, wait, wrong place... IIRC, we had it as small as 10-15 back in the early days of the withholding allowance. (Before then? Unlimited spare, replacement, and upgrade parts, provided they were built in a FIX-IT Window, which could be very lousy hours for teams...)

2007, where to be full weight of 120 lbs you had to be no more than 4' tall at the start of the match, was quite an interesting year. After that, 110 lbs up to 5' tall, and 100 lbs up to 6' tall, which was the maximum that year. A very well-liked change that left the next year, for reasons unknown. (Also memorable: "How do you fit a 6' tall robot into a 5' tall crate? Plan ahead."--paraphrase of Woodie Flowers at Kickoff that year)

I remember when the weight went from 130 lbs with battery to 120 lbs without--2005 season, as I recall. I remember when bumpers were optional or not used at all. I remember when the size last changed--30x36 went to 28x38, in 2005. At the same time as 2v2 became 3v3, and as I recall the field size changed slightly too. The following year, a 1-8, 1-8 selection became 1-8, 8-1.

All good stuff. I think the first year they allowed it, the withholding allowance was 15 lbs... <grumpy old man>And yes, kiddos, there was a time before the withholding allowance, and people built robots and competed with them! Now get off my lawn!</grumpy old man>