[darkMatt3r]

The method of teams earning their way to championships is very skewed. It has its ups and downs.

On the up-side, the winning alliance gets to bring veteran teams, usually the #1 seed, and a rookie, usually the 3rd pick. The great thing about the entire winning alliance going to worlds is that it gives the power teams the chance to go to championships, and it gives the rookie team, or 3rd pick, one that usually doesn't go to worlds, the ability to experience the competition and hopefully make the changes they need to make over the course of the year so that during the next FRC season, they ARE the powerhouse team.

On the down side, there are very few methods of getting the other various "great" teams to a regional. Yes, there is the RCA, EI, and Rookie All-Star awards, but what about the other great teams. Yes, the rest of the best as the topic starter calls it.

Clearly it's not something that I, or any one of us can come up with a fair solution to it, as we all have the best interests in mind for our own team, but this is something that FRC needs to address.

Like Dale from 1056 said, their robot performed great at the competition, and coming from personal experience, their team is a great one, but they didn't make it to champs? Somethings wrong here, as the same thing happens at every regional.

Many months of planning go into the FRC season. Not to mention the 6-weeks of staying till 11PM every night after school to work on the robot. Teams MUST be given the opportunity to go to worlds. Championships should not be only a reward, but an experience and an OPPORTUNITY. All teams should be able to find a way to go. As not being able to go really does give the feeling of being left out.

FIRST needs to address this, but thats just my opinion.

Secondly, where are the students?

Shouldn't teams be represented by the student members. Not the coaches, alumni, college students, or the mentors. FIRST is about shaping future engineers. It's what FIRST is about... the kids. Not the adults helping the kids.

But that's another issue. Probably one that will never be addressed.

That's all for now.