anyone have any ideas about next years game?

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

Chances are the veteran teams in richer areas will end up having a better robot.

I disagree entirely. Looking 7 miles from my own home, there are quite a few Detroit teams who are doing great, and Detroit as a whole is not in the greatest financial situation. While money can create fancy-looking robots, it does not always create game-winning ideas.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by Karibou

I disagree entirely. Looking 7 miles from home, there are quite a few Detroit teams who are doing great, and Detroit as a whole is not in the greatest financial situation. While money can create fancy-looking robots, it does not always create game-winning ideas.

I said "better robot" not "winning robot" on purpose. I totally understand but you have to see that richer schools have access to better opportunities. It might be the difference between a CNC machine and hand drill. Not saying that you can not produce the same work, but you really can't deny that the CNC machine is a lot more "convenient" than hand drilling everything. Now that itself won't give you a winning robot, but the more prototypes you can pump out, the more practice your team can get. The more money you have, the better and more hardware you can buy.

Just my observation. The richer teams tend to have better robots. Now "better" is subjective, but you get the jist of it.

[Chris is me]

A winning robot is the better robot, no matter how it was made or how much it cost.

I wouldn't say the "richer" teams have better robots, mainly because that relies on assuming that certain teams are richer.... and the teams people assume are "richer" are the ones with better robots. Circular logic. I've seen teams with $50,000 budgets miss eliminations at regionals and I've seen teams with $10,000 budgets win it all.

[Basel A]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

I said "better robot" not "winning robot" on purpose. I totally understand but you have to see that richer schools have access to better opportunities. It might be the difference between a CNC machine and hand drill. Not saying that you can not produce the same work, but you really can't deny that the CNC machine is a lot more "convenient" than hand drilling everything. Now that itself won't give you a winning robot, but the more prototypes you can pump out, the more practice your team can get. The more money you have, the better and more hardware you can buy.

Just my observation. The richer teams tend to have better robots. Now "better" is subjective, but you get the jist of it.

While it's clear teams with more resources have better chances of excelling in any given year, and I think Kara acknowledges that, I don't think differences in budget necessarily best indicates a team with greater potential for building a better robot. If anything, I'd bet the number of mentors is much more important.