[FRC Blog] 2017 International Game Piece Option

[Ari423]

Originally Posted by Jaci

Let's say FIRST adds this choice for domestic teams, too. Suddenly this very imbalance everyone is so sensitive about comes back.
In the US, you get your KOP on day one. In Western Australia, we get it about 3-4 days into the season (if we're lucky, in 2015 it took 1.5 weeks, that's 1/4 of the season).

Now you not only have everything you need to prototype, but an extra gamepiece as well, 3-4 DAYS MINIMUM before we do.

When you take all this into account, US teams getting 1 game piece 3-4 days minimum before international teams get 2 game pieces seems like a pretty good tradeoff.

I think pretty much everyone in this thread agrees that non-US teams have many huge disadvantages, in ways US teams can't even understand. But no good comes from lowering the ceiling, we need to raise the floor. Instead of limiting pre-orders to only international teams to balance the disadvantages, we (and FIRST) should work to make it easier for international teams. Perhaps that means shipping you the kit of parts early and trusting you not to open it like they trust you to bag the robot on bag day. Perhaps it means providing dimensions for parts in metric so it's easier to find locally sourced parts. It is impossible to make it completely even for non-US teams, but that doesn't mean we have to make it harder for everybody when we can make it easier for everybody too.

PS - this will be my first year as a mentor of a non-US team after 4 years on a US team so my opinion may be very different this time next year