Thoughts on Ri3D and BuildBlitz

[KeeganP]

Hey everyone. I am in no way suggesting that we discontinue/disregard that the Ri3D and Build Blitz teams did an incredible job and should be thanked for their amazing effort, skill and time commitment to making FIRST better.

All I'm suggesting is that next year they limit their production of exact resources until after build season is closer to a conclusion. I agree that teams could theoretically just turn a blind eye to all of this, but can you really control an entire FRC team's internet access? What happens when one student comes in and says "look at this robot!" or claims to have a great idea the he/she *knows* will work because they saw it already.

I think that perhaps if the teams had just waited until later to release their CAD drawings I would personally be happier -- teams couldn't just copy the robots. I understand that no robot (hopefully) will be a direct copy of it, however I think that being able to look up the exact dimensions, part numbers, etc. for building an obviously successful robot becomes degrading to a team that can no longer call their robot design original and student led. After all, what's FIRST's mission? To inspire a generation of technology leaders. Are they going to learn to think outside the box when they can download 5 different robot CAD files and combine them? Or are they just learning how to assemble a box set?

Let's keep this discussion going and how we can improve upon the Ri3D and Build Blitz ideas, rather than attacking each other's views on what "inspiration" and "cheating" are.