Team Update #1

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by Alexa Stott

As stated elsewhere on CD, it has basically become an issue of who can make the lightest minibot. That's hardly a tough engineering challenge.

Coming off of the high of my first FIRST Regional Competition win, I have to say that there appears to be a difference in perspective that I can't quite grasp here.

This game is both exciting and terrifying because it isn't a matter of "who can build a robot to meet the challenge?" Every FIRST team can build a robot that can do the tasks asked of us in this year's game...

It is a matter of "who can build a robot that can meet the challenge better than the other teams who are doing the same?"

Hanging tubes on a rack = not hard.
Hanging tubes on a rack better than everyone else = hard.

Racing a MINIBOT up a pole = not hard.
Racing a MINIBOT up a pole faster than everyone else = hard.

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We were confident last year because we knew we had nailed the strategy, and knew that we build a robot that could perform. We were confident that we were top tier. (This proved to be true on the regional level, but not at Championship -- we learned some lessons we are taking to heart!)

We are not at all confident this year because we know that we have the strategy nailed, but we're 100% positive that most teams do, too. We know how to build a bot to execute that strategy, but so do they...

Different decisions in task execution will result in gold and bronze medals, and gold vs. bronze will not be decided by chance.

To whit, building a light MINIBOT isn't hard. Building "the lightest" MINIBOT absolutely is. (FYI, I disagree with you a bit, too. While 'wheeled bots racing up the pole' will likely be the standard, there is a matter of gearing, wiring, traction, deployment, etc. to be considered. If this weren't a competition, it'd be easy. But it is, so it isn't.)

[Nawaid Ladak]

Originally Posted by thefro526

Thank the robot gods for an 84" cylinder.

Agreed: To all the people arguing that 2007 designs will be copied. some of those designs may have issues now thanks to different bumper rules now compared to 2007

Somebody should really do a poll on this: i thin the FIRST community is split on weather the 84" rule is a good or bad thing.

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

FIRST. You made a horrible call, you took what was potentially a good engineering design challenge, and turned it into a last ditch effort to save their inferior (to vex) FTC design competition.

It's now a challenge of who can make the SAME minibot lighter. Yay.

Quoted for Truth

Originally Posted by Cory

I have no desire to watch a battle of who sucks less. It's not inspiring to see whether the robot that takes 16 seconds to hang beats out the one that takes 14 seconds to hang. Slow=boring, regardless of whether it's a scenario where it ends up being a buzzer beater.

my thoughts exactly. I have no desire to watch a football game involving two bad teams, even if that game may end up having the most suspense that week.

a lot of those consistent hangers would still make the match exciting. Instead of going for the hang with 20 seconds left, the would go for it with 5 or 7 seconds left