[Anupam Goli]

In 2009, I casually wandered to the Championship event in downtown Atlanta, not knowing what to expect. My team had qualified with an engineering inspiration award, and I was excited. What I experienced at the championships was inspiring. Being able to see robots from around the world, ask questions and learn from teams like 1114 and 254 is not something you can do elsewhere, and seeing these machines live inspires you to improve.

Fast forward to today, my students are thrilled to win their first regional, and the other mentors on the team are thrilled to compete at the world championship for the first time since 2015. The goal for the last three years has been to make it to the eliminations at championships, but we needed to win a regional to make it first.The students are so excited that they'll be able to play with the big boys like 254, 118, 1114, etc. They watch all of these streams and are looking forward to seeing them up close.

Having two region-locked championships will not be inspiring to them. They want to see the best of the world, all in one place. They don't want to play in a watered down championship featuring half of the good teams, and the other half being teams who aren't championship event-caliber. Why put in the effort to win a regional when you're just going to go to a diluted "half championship"?