Vote to change the format of FIRST.

[Marc P.]

Originally Posted by Mr.G

I don't think you are reading this correctly. Everyone keeps there robot and takes it from event to event. The robot never leaves their hands. So everyone has the same amount to time to work on their robot.
.

Lets say my team and your team are each attending one regional event.

My team attends a week 1 regional. Your team attends a week 5 regional.

My team competes in week 1, finds out our design isn't the best for this year's challenge, isn't picked for the elimination matches, and does not qualify for the championship. Our "official" season is over after that one event.

Your team keeps your robot, and continues working as you watch week 1, 2, 3, and 4 regionals. Four additional weeks to build, with the added benefit of watching 4 weeks of competitions to garner strategy, find out which mechanisms work best, etc. Now you and all the week 5 teams have a chance to field far more competitive robots than anyone in week 1.

In essence, my team has a 6 or 7 week build season for one event. Your team has a 10 or 11 week build season for one event. How is that fair? Sure, my team could keep the robot after our regional and continue working through the rest of the season, but if we aren't attending any other official competitions, what purpose would that serve?

Changing the format like this would effectively make early week regional competitors do the gruntwork in designing mechanisms and establishing strategy. Any late week regional competitors could easily see what works and what doesn't, with potentially 2-3 weeks to revise and redesign their robots accordingly.