Why do we bother bagging?

[JVN]

I suspect... whatever changes are made (or not made) to the system won't significantly change the "gap" between "powerhouse" and "not-powerhouse" teams. I believe the gap will shift, but not to any major extent. 67 will still build a powerhouse robot. 1114 will still be a "Vegas odds" favorite to win their division. 254 will still build a machine which stands above others.

However, I do believe that the overall quality of machines could decrease if we limit things more in a significant way, as some have suggested.
Imagine if FIRST said "don't work after 6-weeks... don't build a practice bot... if you do, you're cheating.":

I suspect teams will attempt lower-performing robots which they know they can finish during the 6-weeks, instead of relying on the 45-lb safety net to catch them if they fail spectacularly.

I suspect more teams will over-reach, and have no means to finish the machines they do attempt. I imagine these teams will fall-back to defensive play as a strategy which requires only driving. We'll have a lot of such teams playing.

I suspect great teams will continue to build great robots, but they won't be as great as they could have been. (If we're only allowed to use plywood, 254 will build a very cool plywood robot... and be very grumpy about it.)

However, I agree that mentors will burn out less. I agree that students will burn out less. I personally, would get more sleep.

My opinion, is that this would be good for individuals, but bad for the program.
I am one of those people who believes that exciting robots, and exciting matches are good for this program. I worry about the impact any of these changes would have on the overall gameplay at the elite level (which, I personally believe is important to the viability of this program).

I watched a bunch of old matches the other day with my students. It is surprising to me how badly these games have aged. Robots are slow and clunky. Things which I remember being incredible now seem ho-hum. I personally wouldn't want to go back to that level of performance.

Everything involves tradeoffs. Everything requires balance. Nothing is black and white. Shifts in one thing will cause other things to also shift; some of these shifts will not be predictable.

-John