Does collaboration do good and evil?

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by Alex Cormier

...does it hinder the ability to win awards? Think about it, if one of the collaborated teams won an award, how does the judges go by and talk to the other collaborated teams? ....

I think the issue would depend on how the collaboration was managed. If all the teams contributed to all parts of the robot, then I dont see how they could (should?) win a design award, since three teams worked on the one design.

But if each team designed a specific subsystem of the robot, then I dont see any reason why one team could not win an award for their drive train (for example) or another team win for their arm or collector or shooter...

At first this seems a little unfair, because that team only designed one part of the robot this year, so they could concentrate all their resources on that one subsystem. But any team could also do that - use the FIRST KOP chassis and drivetrain for example, and only design a shooter that is attached to the rest.