[Ken Leung]

At the moment, there are only few teams outside North America that participate in this competition, and so FIRST have not had the chance to arrange details in the matters regarding those teams.

Yes, they had the chance to go to kickoff and pick up the kit... And yes they know the game the same time as everyone else... But in the future of FIRST, when there will be many teams outside of North America, I believe arrangement should be made such that those teams outside of North America won't have an disadvantage in the competition, no matter how small it is.

Already some measures were taken in the writing of the rules, and measurements now come in meters instead of inches. But more should be considered, because those teams live in countries without things we take granted for, such as local distributors for motors and competition objects like balls and bins. It is unfortunate that students with the same passion to compete and learn from this competition should have to pay more and wait extra long for things they can't easily get to.

Here are a few things I like to see happen...

Have some sort of remote kickoff at the other countries. Even though teams might not be able to send representatives over there, at least the kit of parts will be at the remote kickoff, easier to distribute to teams around the area than from US. Have a place where the kit of parts are gathered earlier and shipped off to the teams at a more reasonable time. This might be done by having FIRST giving those teams the highest priority in the kits and send them the first few ones put together in Manchester. This will be the same reason why there are remote kickoffs all over the US.

Finish designing the game with a month to spare, so that competition objects like balls and bins are shipped to remote kickoff site around kickoff. This can be done by having Dean, Woodie, Dave, and others make up their mind a little earlier.

More written rules for teams outside of North America that deal with the difference in language and currency and measurement units, so the teams don't have to waste extra time during the 6 weeks to translate everything into words they are familiar with. This will have to be done by volunteers from the teams outside of North America. Same thing for travel arrangements… I am not saying FIRST should make travel arrangements for teams outside of North America, but it will be nice to see teams in the same country help each other out and give guides to each other in this matter.


Keep in mind that, things will only be done if there is a demand for it. I am talking about numbers of teams in Brazil, or England, or Germany as great as those in states with regional competitions. That will be really cool to see. It will be like the changes FIRST made when it expand from New Hampshire to the whole country. This will be an expansion from the United States to the whole world.

So, to all the teams outside of North America: recruit more teams, and your wish will come true.