Sabotage

[Taylor]

In my experience, I've found that being outraged on behalf of others is often a misuse of energy.

This is a calculated risk by DSK. As a topical parody act, there is a level of expectation that they will tackle this issue. This isn't their first foray into controversial issues ("No students built that robot!" comes hilariously to mind). I'd wager they ran this idea past the 12 teams before making it public.

As far as loss goes - some teams missed a fair chance at getting a blue banner. Three exceptional and deserving teams earned a blue banner. Net loss in overall team blue-bannerage: 0.

Let's look at DSK - namely the lead singer, Ozzy. What happened at STL and throughout the season was, in a word, embarrassing. The livelihood of Ozzy, his family, his friends and their families depend on FIRST not being embarrassing, and on Ozzy's establishing and maintaining great relationships with hundreds of teams and suppliers. As far as losses go, I'd say members of DSK stand to lose the most by the Einstein debacle, and by treating it inappropriately. If they're willing to look back with a bit of humor, good on them. They need healing too. To them, this isn't blue banners to hang on the wall - it's food on their kids' plates.

For those that were directly involved in the events that happened in April, you certainly have every right to be outraged, for an indefinite amount of time. As one of the major players said, it sucks, and it sucks big time, and it will never not suck. But let's let people determine their own reactions, and let's not get indignant at a comedy act when it does something funny.