I’ll start this off by saying I don’t want this to become a discussion about COVID-19 or the status of current district or regional events.
It’s my opinion we need to bring back the bag. Now is the perfect time to tell everyone to bag up their robot, push the whole season back a few weeks (or months), and take some time to figure out what to do next. Rescheduling with venues, finding volunteers, and gathering funding will all take a significant amount of time.
Maybe by May we can find a way to salvage this season.
Lets do our best to discuss in a civil manner, the pro’s and con’s of telling everyone to bag their robot.
Can you explain the benefit, or value at all, in putting the robot in a bag? Why not just leave it out? Let teams make their own decisions with what to do with their time. It’s fine. Let’s not add another logistical headache to this whole process for no reason.
There’s already a thread about this and it’s been brought up several times in other threads. My opinion is that more time doesn’t necessarily mean better robots. While there aren’t perfect robots and never will be, there’s a certain point where nothing short of a total redesign will actually make something much better. I also don’t think it’s worth doing when it’s just going to keep teams that don’t have a practice bot from doing anything with their time. Even if the competition season ends, we don’t need to bring all of FRC to a halt.
In my mind I can see why you might want to bring the bag back, and create a situation where everyone hands off the robot until all teams can have regular access to their robot and we can create a new schedule. But the other side is you go back to where teams who still have access to their robotics room can make a practice robot. At this point I do not believe creating a bag and tag would hep. Some teams do not have access to their labs anyway.
Not sure what is you view on the pros of bagging this season. Do you want to “freeze” robot iteration is case events are delayed instead of cancelled? Are you afraid that someone will copy a robot with the extra time?
My take:
Pros to bagging - None mid season. It’s either bag and tag or no bag and tag. Build season decisions were made based on the rules. A rule change mid season is not good even in these circumstances. I know FIRST will look at participation rules if the season somehow is just postponed to fall.
Standard season advancement to district champs and 2-champs is done. I see no way to synchronize a global season at a future date.
If I’m not mistaken, one of the main reasons that the bag-n-tag was removed is that teams with more resources are able to make a practice bot while their real robot is in the bag. What’s to stop the same thing from happening if we bag it up now?
I don’t think bagging now would level the playing field. I would echo the same sentiment as others in this thread that it would create a bit of a logistical headache that isn’t necessary right now. Let’s let FIRST HQ take care of this one…
I thought this originally, but I guess it is technically off topic. The goal is to discuss bringing back the bag for this specific situation, not the merits of the bag in general.
I am thankful that there was no bag this season. Had there been a bag then the robot’s primary mission as a tool for learning would never have been fulfilled and it would be sitting in a plastic tomb, waiting out an uncertain future. I am grateful that the team got time to work on it even though it might never see a competition.
Marshall hit it on the head for me. While some urgency might have been reduced, the bulk of our team will be back next year so learning more is a great way to advance and maintain interest in the program.
I really fail to see how the season doesn’t get cancelled. At the very least, over 50% of teams aren’t going to play an event. Let people have their robots. Use them for outreach or team bonding, try to get together with a neighboring team and scrimmage, do something. People are having a hard enough time with everything ending* the way it has. Don’t make them put what they worked on for months into a giant trash bag, indefinitely.
*Think: the seniors who loaded into their last ever regional, which was going to be their ONLY one this year, and were told the next morning to load out after they were inspected, never touching the carpet
Both of our events are postponed (first season ever trying to do 2 Regionals too…). Forcing our team to not be able to work on the robot further, to not use it for demonstration events when public gatherings are allowed, to not just be able to drive the thing for some fun… would be adding insult to injury. At some point our School District will probably cancel classes or extracurriculars and then we will have a total pause on the season at that point, but until and after then we can continue to inspire in other ways. We don’t have money for a practice bot - don’t take our whole off-season away from us too.
I feel as if you’re obligated to post why you believe the bag would be a pro. You created the thread. You must have had some leaning towards this. You cannot facilitate a discussion without providing any context to your thoughts.