[Jaxom]

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

FLL does sometimes seem to be too low-level for these kids(especially 8th grade)

Then they're not doing it right. There's nothing low-level about FLL, imo; that's one of the attractions. There are challenges there for adults; 8th graders have plenty to think about. And remember, outside the US & Canada FLL goes to age 16. If you're at CMP stop by the FLL pits & take a look at what some of the World teams come with. There are some very sophisticated robots. And it's cheaper -- and easier to transport -- than even FTC for those high school age kids.

Originally Posted by Dinoyan

Looks awesome, They should use it for FLL.

It would be hard to do this; that first "L" in FLL stands for "LEGO". I'm sure FIRST could come up with a nice, new, name, but LEGO works great for the intended audience; I don't see any compelling reason to ditch it.

Originally Posted by dcarr

Looks awesome. I'd be curious to see a comparison to Lego offerings from someone who's more familiar with them.

I took at look at the VEX IQ kits this morning & am quite impressed. They have some definate advantages over LEGO Mindstorms; two of the biggies that immediately stood out to me are:
1) The ability to hook 12 devices to the controller, with no restriction on what device goes where. Mindstorms is limited to 3 outputs & 4 inputs, although the soon-to-be-available EV3 adds a 4th output. Which still isn't close to the VEX IQ controller.
2) Price. The kit itself is basically the same price, but some of the additional VEX IQ parts are FAR less expensive. $20 vs. $60 for a rechargeable battery; $5 vs. $18 for a touch sensor. The motors are about the same price, though.

Statements like "supports event programming to simplify software" on the sensors intrigue me. If that means what I think it means that's another advantage to add over Mindstorms & NXT-G. I don't know about EV3, yet, so this might be moot.

One minus was the field elements & field itself. Just the elements for the 2013-14 game are more expensive ($100) than the FLL field kit ($75) and $200 for a "full field perimeter and tiles" seems hideously expensive. You can build an FLL table for around $50. If you're doing this for a non-competition STEM program this part really won't matter, of course.

I've got too much investment in FLL & LEGO to switch over (my play money this summer is going to an EV3), and there are no tournaments anywhere close to us. But it looks like it has great possibilities, and if this stirs up some competition with LEGO -- resulting in better products & prices for both companies -- then that's a Very Good Thing.