[FIRST EMAIL] Stop Build Day Survey

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Pauline Tasci

So I'd have to agree with Adam. You are not keeping up if you want to be the best of the best at a worldwide scale unless you do not stop working until comp with 2 robots (or more).

And that right there was my whole point. There are over 3000 teams in FIRST. Do we expect ALL of them to build two robots in order to try to "keep up" with, as you put it, the best of the best? You say a "fair" threshold is Einstein? That was only 32 teams this past year - the top 1% of FRC. I don't really call that a fair threshold of "keeping up". that's saying that 99% of teams failed to "keep up". What you're suggesting is essentially an arms race that would lead to every team trying to one-up each other every year, to put in more time and more effort than the previous year. I'm sorry, but that's not the FIRST I know, and it's not a FIRST that I really want to participate in.

Does anyone actually have any data that shows how many FRC teams build two robots currently? Or any data that breaks out every team's schedule before and after SBD? Because a lot of people are making statements that imply that they do.

I know a TON of teams that don't build second robots, and don't participate on CD, but are still very successful within their definition of success. But a lot of the posts on here, quite frankly, make it sound like people look down on those teams, see them as somehow less than other teams and needing a change in the rules in order to "improve" to where other teams are. Is it not enough to acknowledge that these teams are inspiring students, having fun, and leave it at that?