New FIRST competition structure in Michigan

[ChristinaR]

Something that hasn't (I think) been touched upon in this thread yet is the lack of the practice day. Instead, teams will have an 8 hour window to fix/build their robots in the week leading up to the event. This places a lot of trust into the hands of the teams, doesn't it? I'm not saying that teams would abuse the privilege of being able to access their robot prior to the competition, but it's unfortunately not a guarantee. The FAQ says robots will be stored at a local facility, so for the 8-hour window, they can pick it up and must return it on time? It's the only way I currently see that is feasible for monitoring this.

Also, with the lack of a practice day, what about things such as scouting? Of course you still get the first day of competition, but I've always viewed the practice day as an all-important resource to get some valuable scouting done. Rookie teams being tossed into the fray of the competition with possibly no experience in facing opponents at an event may suffer as well. The old adage "Practice, Practice, Practice" comes to mind.