Quote:
Originally Posted by IndySam
I think what Rick was saying is the FTC students pour as much soul and energy into their bots as FRC students do and deserve the same chance to be showcased on the big stage.
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I won't dispute the latter--while my involvement with FVC/FTC ended in 2008*, I can probably safely say there are some FTC teams that pour more energy into their robots and programs than some FRC teams.
That said, there is something to be said for spectacle that attracts attention and coverage from a broader base. FTC can be fun, but it's definitely a challenge to give the smaller field and robots that main-event feel like FRC has been able to develop. It's difficult for me to see a broadcaster bypassing FRC for FTC when saying "Hey, let's put robots on TV!".
In the end, I'm going to go to St. Louis, partake of the raucous celebration that is the 2011 FIRST Championship, and handle the postmortem sometime in May.
*Nothing political about that date of departure; within a month of Championship that year, I was working full-time. Barely enough time to volunteer as a mentor, let alone do extra events.