If you could change one rule - eliminate ship requirement discussion

[Sepsis900]

sorry for having little faith in humanity, but an honor code is really unreliable. Some teams may follow it if their robot is done, but most teams will continue work if there's something they think they can improve. It would be fantastic if everyone just played nice and worked with what they have after 6 weeks, but honestly, it only takes one cheating team to mess up an entire regional. While 39 teams are playing on even grounds, one has an unfair (but not illegal) advantage, and that hurts everybody.
If you're going to loosen up shipping rules, you really have to put other limits in to keep cheating from happening.

As for the free shipping: if it happens, then great! If you want to attend a second regional, though, it'd be cheaper for you to drive the bot around yourself. Nationals, though, are a whole different story. I doubt someone will spend 4 days driving a truck from California to Atlanta and back. If FedEx offers free shipping anywhere, it really ought to be to Nationals.

Most people build their robot close to a regional competition. Our regional is literally 20 minutes by car away from our school. If it comes down to paying FedEx $600 or renting a truck for $80, I'd pick the truck. Rural areas are different, though, where you might have to drive 3-5 hours to a regional. Economically speaking, it's still much cheaper to rent a truck, but it's really up to the individual team weather or not driving for a day is worth $400.