The 6 Week Build Season and 'Mentor Burnout'

[pathew100]

Just a few thoughts after reading the latest posts on here.

* The top/uber teams will work from kickoff until championship regardless of any rules limitations. Even with no withholding, they will perfect a practice robot, dial in their autonomous, and spend lots of time figuring out how they upgrade the competition robot at their next event.

* Being able to build and test code and "driver's training" on a practice robot is a huge advantage. Why not let all teams have that chance by letting them at their competition robot?

* FIRST made a big push this year and for the past few years to make the game and competitions spectator friendly. We now have the "Make it Loud" award, etc... What would the competition be like if we cut back access to the robots? Not nearly as exciting, especially at the early regionals. And it would hurt the middle tier teams the most.

* Over time, the game challenges/tasks (especially autonomous) have become more difficult. The software is a lot more complicated than the old IFI days. The mechanical side has gotten maybe a little easier with AndyMark and Vex, etc... But I can't imagine what it would be like to be a rookie team now. Cramming all that into 6 weeks has added to burnout.

* If robot access or the season were expanded, project management and time management skills would be a must for all teams. These are good lessons to learn as well as technical skills.