Ideas to move in the direction of making FIRST competitions 'fair'

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

...it's becoming easier and easier for rookie teams to build better robots. Rather than seeing strict rules put in place to stifle the "better" teams, I would rather see more resources being developed to help rookie teams build competitive robots.

Instead of lowering a team's expectations, let's raise the amount of competitive resources available to them.

I completely agree. This year's game was particularly new-team friendly since it didn't require the development of very complicated systems to remain competitive. Not only were arms not required, but you didn't even necessarily need to make a shooter. There were plenty of one-point bots that were successful. A low-ball bot made it all the way to the Championship Finals, and they might have even won if things had gone slightly differently.

Games that have multiple angles to approach from encourage new teams to focus on an area they believe they can do well. If they don't have the experience to develop a complicated arm system or a top-notch autonomous routine, there should be plenty of other ways they can solve the problems presented by the game to remain competitive.

I think the 2006 and 2004 games are the best examples of this in recent history. I can't wait to see what opportunities the 2007 game brings.