[Paul T.]

I competed for 5 years (my former team were world champions) but i have to say as crazy as this sounds First is cheeper (or it has been for the teams i was on) in vex we had a working budget of 10k and 20 students on 5 teams with new parts and batteries to run in the top tier. (only two teams were really any good) in first we recently ran off around 7.5k with our registration fee. again 20 students (only 5 or 6 really dedicated). the biggest difference is that you can get usable materials donated from local business in first (someone has some scrap bolts and a little 80/20 they would prefer to give you over a hundred bucks). although the build and competition season is longer in vex its no where near the same experience for you our your students. but this was about the price of a vex team so here's my break down

1 team
$3-5k parts (to start)
$300-750 practice field ($250 for elements yearly)
$0-2k replacement/new design parts
$200 tools (allen wrenches, dremel, vice, ect.)
$250-1.5k competition (we went to 6-8 plus worlds if you make it)
$5k travel (for worlds)

My good friend joe said that the parts are reusable some are but most are not, we broke between 3 to 6 gears monthly in prototyping, every competition we burnt a motor or two (although that was with 5 teams) we cut the metal further and further down ( a beam that started at 18" and would end up as 1" bracket) bent axles from dropping the robots (yes this happens, every month someone would accidentally knock/drive one off a table) screws strip, kids can even ruin micro controllers (I've seen a v0.5 smoke im still unsure how). the biggest problem i have with vex over first is that you can't get vex parts locally, some things are overpriced and although vex parts are well engineered. (message me and ill tell you the ways we got around some parts of the monopoly (legally don't worry Karthik))

But with all this being said I've seen a team with 5 year old parts with rust on them beat a team with a $5k parts budget its all how you do things (again I've got tips) regardless of all this competitive robotics are expensive but many companies will help fund you if you pitch it the right way.

I apologize for being all over the place with the reply and any spelling or grammar