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I love it when they say FIRST is the only way you will learn the great lesson of life.
Robot building is one part. I will agree to that. being done in 6 week shows you thing can be done quickly. Going out and getting money and getting lots of people involved in robotics is great.
But Battlebot does a little more.
You build a great robot to do a task. if it is a great robot they will make a toy looking like your robot. They will even pay you if you win. You do not have in invest alot of money to compete.
They will even advertise on TV so lots of people get hooked on robotics. You might not see all the working behind battlebots but they are getting more people involved in robotic then FIRST has.
If you have not try to get funding for battlebots you should. It is alot easier than FIRST. Just because more people know about it. I have middle school kids now wanting to get involved because they think its cool and fun. This opens a door for so many more people to get into robotics then ever before.
Mabye FIRST will get the point of getting the TV air time so it will become a house hold name. just like battlebots. Everybody want to be on TV.
To when people put battlebots down look at the new picture.
If you ask must non FIRST people if they ever heard about FIRST robots they would say no. But ask anybody if the have heard Battlebots and they would say yes, even if they don't play with robots.
That is saying alot about who is getting the word out.
It is easy to get a group of kids to get a robot into battlebots than into FIRST.
So that is saying more people will turn to another game. And yes you can learn everything FIRST is trying to teach by going to battlebots. and maybe more.
I do still hold FIRST on a high level this will be are 9th year in it. But sorry to say are last. FIRST has only force are hand and took the even playing field away.
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