Is this fair?

[dtengineering]

This post may serve as a valuable reminder to all teams that having a tech inspection completed at the last possible moment is challenging and stressful not just for teams, but for inspectors, too. While you are certainly allowed, under the rules, to have your tech inspection completed at any moment prior to your first match, leaving it to the last minute may well increase the chances of a small but important step... such as the signing of the sticker... being missed.

Secondly, it is another valuable reminder of the importance of having robots ready to run when they go in the shipping crate... and having time to practice with them before that. I'm not saying that is something we're always able to do... but then again I don't expect to win regionals against teams that were ready and practicing a week before ship date, either.

Finally, the responses to this post are also a valuable reminder not to get too tied up about a win-loss record, or to be too eager to issue blame. FIRST is run by people, and mistakes will happen.... what is amazing is not that they do happen, but how rarely they happen.

I am sorry you missed your match, but hope you realize that your team may have been able to avoid the situation by showing up with a functioning robot and passing tech early in the day when the inspectors have more time to dot the I's and cross the T's and check out their work with each other.

Good luck on Saturday,

Jason