Tape measure proboscus

[tito]

My team (192) is in sort of a dilemma. As many of you already know, the rule on entanglement of the proboscus/tether has been greatly relaxed allowing teams to use devices that were previously thought to be illegal. One of these devices is the tape measure: it was deemed illegal in one of the rule updates but it is not any more.
At the SV regional, one team (254) created a tape measure proboscus during Thursday of the regional (therefore it is legal) and used it very effectively to get 1st place.
Looking at this, some of the members on our team went ahead and built one before midnight of the Wednesday after the regional. However, half the team is against putting this new proboscus on (we already have another one that goes to both sides of the field, although it not as fast as the tape measure). Their reason is this: the tape measure was illegal and as a result, no one made it during the 6-week build period and if we were to put it on, many teams would hate us because we would be using something that should be illegal. The reputation of 192 as a good, helpful team that follows the rules would be a risk.

The otherside of this argument is that teams would be mad but not at us. They would be mad at FIRST for changing the rules after the shipping date. Our reputation will not change because, afterall, the tape measure is perfectly legal under the new rule change.

The decision to put this device on depends on what others think of this robot. We would like to do well in Florida but we do not want to lose the respect from others by using the tape measure.

What do YOU think?