User blog comment:Drop Zone mk2/My rant about qualifying robots/@comment-1770349-20160404175649

Totally agree with you. As impressive as some of these non-qualifier robots we've uncovered look, there must have been reasons why they didn't qualify.

Also, with regards joke robots and robots that don't stand much of a chance, which get flack for qualifying over more worthy robots. The reason those robots qualified is because TPTB want a variety of robots, in the same way quiz show producers want a wide variety of contenders with varying levels of general knowledge, and will occasionally reject clever contenders in favour of less clever ones, so that they get more variety.