[FTC]: First-year FTC teams looking for advice

[evanperryg]

This season my FRC team has started our first 3 FTC teams. We have never competed in FTC before, and have rarely seen FTC competition. Our teams will consist of 10-12 students, and we are using the TETRIX kits. I know this is a lesser-browsed section of CD, but I'm hoping somebody around here may have some FTC wisdom they'd be willing to offer to us. Any advice is greatly appreciated, but here's a few things I'm particularly curious about:

• There are many ways to contribute points in this new game, and FRC logic would dictate that a single robot won't do every aspect of the game perfectly. Is it better to focus on one or two game elements, or to be a jack of all trades?
• Are there any materials or parts that don't come in the kit that are considered essential to a good robot? (i.e. a certain type of wheels, tubing, etc.)
• Similar to the above question, just how far can the bare-bones TETRIX kit get you? Is it enough to succeed at a high level?
• Is it safe to assume most FTC teams CAD their robots? If so, how much detail do they put into the design?
• Is scouting popular in FTC? If so, what is the most popular method?

Thanks for the help!