Hi, my name is Daniel and I'm posting this on behalf of team #1156, but the issue I'm going to describe probably is shared by many international teams:
Brazil has neither FTC teams nor Tetrix kits for sale on the market.
As you all know, it’s necessary to use tetrix in order to accomplish an important part of the 2011 game: the minibot, which might earn up to 30 points and define the game. FIRST set this rule in order to FRC teams interact with FTC teams, and even without FTC teams in your area, an FTC kit might be affordable when you are an American team, but an international team as ours has no means of purchasing one, our only option would be through importation, and that takes a lot of time and the taxes are suffocating.
This is a serious handicap for international teams.
We contacted FIRST to check the possibility of using a similar kit. They said they can't open such an exception and advised us seek help with other teams at our regional or on FIRST forums.
If any team going to NYC regional can be of any help, please contact us through
robotica.1156@gmail.com. We are building a minibot launcher anyway.
Thank you for your attention.