[maverickfan138]

To reiterate what has been said, there are many advantages and disadvantages to the Michigan model. I'll start with the advantages.

The cost has already been mentioned. It allows for teams to go to more events, which is what everybody wants, right? After two FIRST seasons, I have competed in eight events. The level of competition has already been mentioned as well. At certain districts, it may not be very competitive, but the State Championship is a blast. Watching teams nearly fill up the racks this past year made it very exciting. One of my favorite parts of FiM stems from competing at more events. I have been able to meet a lot of people from all over the state. Factoring offseason competitions and other events, I have been able to build relationships with not just other students, but alumni, volunteers, and mentors. FiM has a very friendly atmosphere and makes it very easy to build connections.

I do have a few things I don't like about FiM though. The first has to do with this year specifically. I did not like how competition winners did not get an auto-bye into the State Championship. Chairman's, Engineering Inspiration, and one other cultural award did not receive any qualifying points for the State Championship as well. I heard the reason behind this was the separate the cultural awards from other awards and highlight them as special. Instead, I think they should award teams with more qualifying points than regular awards. The biggest problem I see with FiM is that it does seem to isolate teams. Sure, you have teams like 217, 67, 469, etc who already have a name for themselves and everybody knows who they are, but at the saem time, there are plenty of other high caliber teams in Michigan who out of state teams have no clue who they are. In the state of Michigan, teams like 2337, 1918, 2137, 201, 1718, etc. are considered(well, I do, but I'm sure many others do as well) up there with 217, 67, 469, etc., a force to be reckoned with. I'm sure these teams find it very difficult to make a name for themselves down at the Championship, even with their performance on the field.