paper: The Penalties will continue until Morale Improves

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by F Elliott

Struggling with a online encyclopedia of build and games rules --- written by a collection of professional engineers and lawyers --- creates a confused thicket of confusion and substitute logic in the minds of a student. In response, they come up with and do all kinds of stuff no "sensible" adult ever imagines. If you want designs and game play to make sense, write them for the kids, not the adults.

Generally I agree that the rules are tough to interpret the first time through. However, with more students and more mentors it is very easy to get the hang of it. You will want to scale up on all fronts, including mentors, fundraising, and as many students as you and your mentors can handle. Seeking help from local teams to bounce ideas off of their heads is a really great idea. As for the robot holding up - the kitbot this year is pretty beasty. The only oversight I see with a lot of young teams (in my region at least) is lack of full-perimeter bumpers. Full bumpers isn't a necessity every year, but this year the game is very rough without them.

When you do get ready to dive in, watch this. It's a great guide for not stretching your team's resources too thin during an FRC season while having wild success.