[JDNovak]

I don't post much but I would like to set the record straight. Someone back in the thread finally alluded to the real purpose of the FIRST experience in inspiring students to work hard at accomplishing what they set out to do. I try to get our team to understand that all we can do is try to look like we could win but winning includes luck and circumstance beyond our control. Last year, two penalty calls that were clearly questionable on video eliminated us from the Championship. We pleaded our case and walked away. Same thing happened in 2011. The most competitive person on our team is the drive coach. When I met him on the way back to the pits his first words were "I didn't want to win like that." We know that the scores wouldn't have been close if our Autonomous systems were working well and that will be our focus.
After 19 years, the winning and losing takes care of itself. My goal is to never be the team that someone wonders how we got there.
The choices are to play down to the competition or try to help the competition get better. We think the latter is the right choice and actively try to do that.
There is a thread on this forum every year of "best teams that have never won." The community is sophisticated enough to know who is doing the things that inspire youth to the next level.
Sure, the rules and amatur refs make the outcome less than perfect but there is so much more to the program that just can't be compared to sports.
We have struggled to get Arkansas companies to recognize that this is where they should be looking for their workforce. We had barely enough funding for this year and right now we have virtually no funding to do it again. If your goal is to make sure it goes away I'm sorry. Many of our teams can't raise the funds to travel out of state and stay in hotels so they can't survive without a local event.
Maybe your money would best be spent hiring professional referees for all events so no collusion could be possible. I hope you come to the conclusion that the competition is not the main product of FIRST and that the students that come through the program are able to handle the real world better than we can.