QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!!

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Posted by colleen.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Coach on team #246, Blue Light Special, from John D. O'Byrant High School/Boston Latin Academy and NSTAR/Boston University/UTC/Raytheon/MassPEP.

Posted on 8/20/2000 9:25 PM MST


In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/20/2000 11:03 AM MST:



We all no how to play on carpet.. on little square and hexagon fields... i would hate to say it's getting a little predictable.. as are we...

So why not make a competition where past experience doesn't really matter.. where the master crab of the Delphi may not be applicable, the speed of Buzz would need to happen on something other than wheels.. where Assabet would be challenged to put out a quality bot (personally, i think 157 has quality robots down to a science!)

Maybe water's a bit drastic for 2001... or maybe it's not.. I'm ready for the challenge.. I'm ready to have to convert the wheelchair wheels into propellers.. i'm ready for it to be HARD to score.. HARD to play the game... not to say that the game's we play are easy, but so much of it we already know how to do (half of us could build everything except the pickup device before the six weeks.. and the only reason we couldn't put in pickup is cause we wouldn't know the size of what we're grabbing)...

And who are we as FIRSTers to say it won't work, it can't happen, and we don't want to have to learn how to make it happen!!... Motorboats work... i haven't a clue about waterproofing electronics.. but heck, i think it would be fun to learn.. it's been a few years since FIRST has made me learn something new.. or look at something different...

Think of Maize Craze.. a corn bed... i bet people thought that was 'impossible'.. couldn't happen.. was too hard.. etc... but 28 teams didn't see it as such.. heck, on my old team, they built their robot after a kid who worked on a golf course said 'hey, you know those little trucks they drive around to pick-up the golf balls.. hey maybe we could use something like that..'...when's the last time many of us had to think like that??

I'm not meaning to offend anyone.. and maybe i've trailed off the subject a bit.. but there isn't anyone who can't say the game hasn't become a bit predictable.. we know we'll need wheels, need to lift something.. etc... i would LOOOOOVE to see a major change in the game.. water, corn, marbles, sand.. whatever! Don't say it's too hard.. that's never an excuse.. and don't say it wouldn't be fair to the rookies, because that is the only way to make the game even slightly fair.. the less FIRST changes, the less we have to change our previous year's robot.. the more advantage any multi-year team has...

Let's completely revamp the game... after 5 years, i'm being to yawn a bit :-)