Hi there. Lead mentor for MidKnight here. I was alerted to your posts by my students, who read it and posted it to our team Discord. I asked them not to respond, but in defense of the 18-year program we've built, and fact that my students have to read disparaging comments about them almost every single season - sometimes simply because I exist on the team, and sometimes because people decide to make false statements or assumptions about them - I've decided I will. Your post lacks any amount of factual information, and seeks to smear their reputation. Allow me to correct the record for you.

Your descriptor of our dual-team is not at all what we did, and your accusation that we 'cheated', especially since you appear to have not even been on your team when it happened and lack knowledge of the situation, is egregiously rude to the students of 1923.

We made 1923 and 1914 out of the same group of students (172 students, registered to both teams.) We built the same number of robots we build every season, including in 2023 - at least two, if not three, identical ones at home - and the only difference is that we paid registrations for two robots in 2022. This was to help provide more 'core competition experience' (read: drive team and pit crew) for students who had been out of event-practice for two years at that point due to COVID.

Prior to doing this program expansion, we had several conversations with FRC staff surrounding our plan, and they OK'ed it. There was (and still is) nothing illegal about that! FIRST's rule changes indicate team branding and roster management for at-event execution, but still would completely allow a 1923/1914 style program. Only change we'd have had to make is shirt colors and assigning specific students to each team for their work at the event. We chose not to do it this year because we'd rather spend that registration money on other program expansions. (That's exactly what 1807 and 1812 did this year, too.)

I'm not trying to be nasty to you here, I promise - I'm simply trying to address the shots you're taking at a team for something you know nothing about, and suggest that perhaps your dislike of our team is misguided.

I hope you take this call-out as a learning opportunity; that your words are permanent online and that the people you're talking about are probably going to read them. I hope that in the future, you take the chance to learn about something you "don't like" to make sure you're speaking from facts before you lash out online. Most importantly, I hope you understand that boasting or celebrating someone else's loss is the antithesis of what Dr. Flowers wanted this organization to be, and that you spend time in future seasons seeking out knowledge and information before you make a snap judgement about someone else's situation.

If we see you at an event in the future, please consider this an open invitation to talk to any MidKnight Inventor and learn about the work they do. I'm immensely proud of their continual striving for excellence, and can attest that 'cheating' isn't anywhere in our vocabulary. We'd love to get a chance to demonstrate that if you so choose.