[Katna.Grace]

Hi, I’m a student on FIRST Team 3132, Thunder Down Under. I’d really like to clear up some of the confusion regarding Australian teams registering.

Doing FRC in Australia is really expensive, for a variety of reasons. For a start, the US-Australian exchange rate is not always favourable. Also, ordering parts from AndyMark or Vex means really expensive shipping, which can double the cost by the time we get it. In other words, it can cost an Australian team double what it costs a North American team to build a robot - and then you have to get the regional, which can cost over $US 40K!

Because of the expense, of the (currently 14) Australian teams that register, half do not attend a regional. All Australian teams (even those that do attend regionals) attend the Duel Down Under off season event in Sydney, Australia, which is open to all FRC teams across the world.

However, in order to register (and thus receive a kit), teams need to designate a regional. This year, I think that all (6 or 7) of the Aussie teams planning on attending a regional are registered for Hawaii – it’s the closest to us. Aussie teams not planning to attend a regional tend to wait until later in the registration process, so they don’t deny other teams a spot. They then pick a regional with empty spots, which is why they keep popping up in seemingly strange places. When they do register, they let FIRST know that they will not be attending, so that spots can be freed up for local teams.

Blacktown Boys, who is currently registered for ‘Forfeit team non-competition’, is not registered for Hawaii, so my guess is that they are NOT travelling and just need a kit, and FIRST is aware of this.


Of course, none of this will be an issue when we get an official Australian regional, hopefully in a few years time.