[nicholsjj]

Just a few thuoghts:
I believe that VEX is starting to really compete with FIRST on some STEM related competition aspects. Talking to team mentors that have gone from FRC to VRC it makes sense in a few areas mainly money. One mentor told me that he can run 7-12 VRC teams for the price of one FRC team over a three year time span. VRC is also more easy and less expensive to run from an event stand point compared to an FRC regional. Now VEX has taken the game and upped the diffcuilty of it due to VEX Iq. Now the games are becoming more challenging and high school targeted. I'm not trying to bash FRC because the fact is that FRC is still the only competition in which students get to work side by side with professionals to build a 120 lb machine. The problem is that unless the cost to the teams go down or a full district model is put in place many teams will seriously consider going to VRC instead of FRC. I'm not saying FRC will fall to the way side but it will be hurt from it. Also I have a question for all of you more expirenced people out there. Will VEX Iq. challenge FLL or is FLL established enough that the cost difference wont hurt it too bad?