Quote:
Originally Posted by Gizmo4
I think FIRST and sponsors should start not just focusing on inner city teams but other underpriviledged teams that live in areas that don't feature many willing or even engineering companies. There is a lot of scientist and engineer potential that is missed through that.
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We are one of those teams. Small rural towns who have few local engineers who really want to get involved and no veteran teams within a 50 mile radius need a little more help to get off the ground and stay there.
We have been around for six years. Four years ago we were lucky and got connected with an extremely dedicated and fun loving engineer. This year we happened to get connected with another two who have found great fun and enjoyment with our team and FIRST in general. The company that employs our original engineer as well as one of our new ones has just been purchased and we do not know what the new owners plan to do with the plant. If they shut them down we could lose two phenomenal engineering mentors.
One suggestion that I have made to FIRST directly is how the top 8 alliances are formed. I submit that if you want more excitement from the mid-level, low-level, and rookie teams treat the alliance selection at competition like alliance selection at many of the off-season events. You may not choose from within the top 8 and/or if you have already won at a regional you may not compete as an alliance captain in subsequent regionals. To my way of thinking this would not be much different than Chairman’s as you can only submit it at one event. Before you start yelling that it is their reward for hard work take a breath and let me finish because I have the utmost respect for those teams and push my team to emulate their work ethic and dedication.
At our one event we compete against teams that attend 2, 3, and 4 events and many times they bring home those big blue banners from multiple events every year. I am at a school and in a town that simply is not yet willing to pay for two events even though we have been in qualifiers 4 of the 6 years we have been competing and our performance is consistently improving. Because we have not yet brought home a blue banner we get a lot of smiles and pats on the head saying ‘how nice for you’ etc. If I brought home a big blue banner there is no question that my community and school would step in and help pay for us to attend championships but until that point we still rank somewhere behind underwater basket weaving in the eyes of this football obsessed town (once again please forgive as my home lives and dies by two seasons, football and robots ) If alliance selection were shifted to ‘must pick outside the top 8’ and/or you cannot compete as an alliance captain if you have already won a regional I
think a couple of things would happen:
- More teams in qualifiers = more teams going home excited about their experience = more kids/teams in their local media = more support and widespread knowledge of FIRST
- Lower seed alliances would not go into quarter-finals expecting to lose (i.e. #1 vs #8 which on the surface seems exceedingly unfair however it is by rights that #1 earned that advantage)
- More new teams to championships = more local publicity for FIRST because I don’t care how small your town is when you have something this cool advancing to World Championships the entire town will jump on board
Now, all of that being said I could be (and often am) completely mistaken and talking out of my backside so please feel free to take my comments as such. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching powerhouse alliances play all-out on the field. It’s exciting and fun to watch. Sometimes though, it’s tough to sit in the stands knowing that your one competition is done while you watch and try to appreciate the finals playing out before you between two alliances made up of multiple teams that have already won their way to championships.