[Peter Matteson]

This is MY opinion on competitiveness and FIRST:

The competition is part of what makes FIRST fun to participate in. If I ever feel the rush of the competition start to lessen I will have difficulty coming back for another season (FYI this will be my 10th season).

I am a naturally competitive person, its what drives me to be better and find ways to improve and I feel my team has the same make up. I don't like going on a field and getting beaten up to the point of embarassment. I will never understand people who think that is okay. If I go out on the field and lose big it is humbling and just causes me to want to work harder to improve and get better.

My team didn't get picked at our only regional in 2008 because we were aweful and didn't deserve it. Our robot barely hurtled and just wasn't good. We used that motivation of embarassment from not being competitive to fire us up and build our scoring mechanism for champs during our fixit windows and not only got picked but won the division. That drive to constantly improve and get better comes from being competitive.

Competitivness is what drives people to be sucessfull in life and avoid stagnation.

If you compete and get humiliated from not being prepared it should make you go home and worker harder for the next time. If you just walk away and accept defeat you will never become better. You can also be the second best team in the world and acknowledge that someone better beat you. You don't have to be happy with it though. You can take that as the inspiration to improve and get more sponsers, resources, mentors or whatever you feel you needed to improve. Just don't stay static and accept mediocraty.