As someone who has attended all eleven Palmetto Regionals and none of the Virginia events, here's my pitch:
1) Palmetto is the first regional in the nation. Say what you want about Week 1, but my understanding is that at least one of the two years (and maybe both) we've been there, we got off the first this-really-counts qualification match in the world. Take from that what you will.
2) Palmetto is the largest regional in FIRST. Or at least it was last year, at 67 teams--FIRST's usual limit is 65, but some late-registering local rookies made the organizers twist FIRST's arm on that.
3) Palmetto has a heck of a crew. The volunteers are super nice, and 10-year head ref Terrell Burch has been a Championship division head ref and has worked multiple Einstein crews. If there's a problem with the reffing, it's garbage in garbage out. The judges also seem to call it down the middle for awards, definitely more so than some regionals I've attended elsewhere (no names). Aside from 4451's inexplicable lack of an Imagery Award win (
I mean, come on!), the hardware seems to find the best homes regardless of where the teams are from.
4) Anyone can win Palmetto! In the eleven years of the event, only four teams have won it more than once: 11 (2004, 2006, 2013), 281 (2004, 2012), 1261 (2010, 2014), and 2815 (2011, 2012). I'm sure that Simbotics or Cheesy Poofs could come in here for a few years and change the math, but in practice nobody runs away with it.
5) You're at the beach! Okay, sure, it's February and you're probably not going in the water. Still, we've had good luck finding food and things to do. Palmetto has been one of the last to host a proper Team Social; there wasn't one in 2014, but they still gave out ice cream Friday night in the lobby, which is 80% of the fun and 0% of the busing.