[ColleenShaver]

Actually, you'd be surprised what some of us know..

I've been on two ten year teams with win records to some pretty great robots..

I've also been on a team who barely moved, didn't move, didn't pass inspection until we were running onto the field for the first match on Friday... where we didn't have money.. the few engineers we had got sent to another country mid-build and we couldn't build what they left us cause, oh yeah, we didn't have a machine shop of any kind...

We've all got our stories..

And if FIRST to you is walking through a pit tent.. seeing Einstein field.. etc.. then buy a plane ticket and head on down..

But if FIRST to you is the experience.. of building a robot that may not do everything or anything, but you put your heart into to it and you're proud.. that you can just make the best of.. that you can seed dead last and still smile at the end of the day (we definitely did!).. and if you can just improve a little every year.. stay in it.

No one is stopping YOU from going to the Championship.. but reasonable logistically issues leave FIRST with no choice... they've done the best they can.. and afterall it's a competition.. and in even the fairest of competitions, you have to do well to move on and win..

It's too bad you can't enjoy FIRST w/o a trip to Disney... *shrugs*.. what do you think people did from 1992-1994 when there was no Disney.. when Nationals were just a gym up in NH? Was FIRST less of a program? Was it any different?

I think not.