Hypothetical Situation

[mtrawls]

Originally Posted by maxlobovsky

I don't mean to start another heated argument, but I'd like to just mention that this might be equated to collaboration between teams (on a large scale, think 254-60 scale). Sacrifices are made all the time in FIRST for the greater goal.

I think there is a rather large distinction that is worth mentioning. The "collaboration" you speak of has the effect to spread the ideas of FIRST ... it fosters the community and brings teams together, and all sorts of goodness, as FIRST has described already. However, letting another team win does none of this. Letting another team win is not collaboration. FIRST said that the collaboration you allude to was good, pointing out that the organization is not about the robots ... but going easy on another team is about the robots, it is about winning a competition. And I hate to rehash it all again, but I'll put my take into it too. Unless the spoils of victory are won honestly, unless they are hard fought for, they mean nothing. If FIRST hands you a championship trophey, will it mean anything to you? No, because a trophey by itself is nothing; the idea is what the trophey represents. Would you want it to represent a hard-fought-for victory, narrowly accomplished ... or a handed-out knicknack? Remember, it is the journey that is important, not so much where you end up as how you got there.