Do you think a practice robot is needed to compete?

[Wayne TenBrink]

We have never built one but we don't rule it out.

The withholding allowance, bag-n-tag, and the district tournament schedule ("out of bag" time) allow a lot of access to the robot and provide much of the benefit that comes from full-time access to a less-than-perfect-fidelity practice bot (which is what most practice bots really are). Going to a 3rd district event (not always possible) also provides a good return on the investment in "practice".

The early results of this survey demonstrate the gap between the "Chief Delphi" crowd and everybody else. What percentage of total teams build a practice bot? Its nowhere close to 80%.