No Ship Day?

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by EricH

Listen to Adam. I was about to say that, because I HAVE seen teams unable to make their first few matches because they did not pass inspection, due to a robot problem, even with the inspectors working with them to solve their issues. And did I mention that this was with an extended inspection time because the inspectors were few in number?


And after any inspection, teams can (and do!) modify their robots. If the modification involves adding something or changing a dimension and it could affect legality, the team is supposed to check with the inspectors before their next match--9/10 times, the inspectors will walk over, go "You're good", and walk away. Most of the rest will be weight checks. (I think one of the folks commenting on this thread got bitten by not informing the inspectors of a change that brought the robot's weight up too high... but still made weight for elims after a hectic lunch break.)

In regards to my comment about not making inspection, the intention of my comment(which, rereading it, I definitely did not make it clear) was that in the firsthand times I personally(and I'm aware you two of infinitely more experience than me, so keep that in mind) have seen, in which a team didn't make their first matches due to unfinished inspection at districts, it often seemed to be issues that would have required an amount of time that, logistically, would be hard to account for.

Also, in all honesty(and I probably shouldn't have made the post because of this), I wasn't 100% what exactly this pre-event inspection entailed. And yes, I'm 100% well-aware that teams can do illegal modifications, but it's much harder to get caught when your robot is not under FIRST supervision(and yes, I know FIRST isn't watching every move you make at a competition, but still). Also, I generally try to view FIRST through rose-colored glasses, but I'm well aware it's not the truth.