Quote:
Originally Posted by jman4747
This is not that bad. I don't think north or south will be "easy" to win due to not playing "half" the world. Districts would feel a bit better but we realy don't loose anything when you think about it. It's ambiguously unsettling because it's new and I like the alternative more. And yea it's more of a bummer when your shop is 5min from the former worlds location and the south championship is now 10hrs away. Thats all there is to it.
If you quit because of this you missed the point and maybe you shouldn't have joined up in the first place? Sponsors and aren't pulling out. Apparently FIRSTs sponsors are very on board or they couldn't afford two championships! Mentors share knowledge and show kids what engineering is realy like. If you are a mentor would you realy abandon your current and future students because you can't be the undisputed champ?
Why we are here now and why you shouldn't quit after 2016 is the same reason you do FRC and not just VRC/FTC in spite of the cost. The big robots are still realy cool and the amout of technical knowlage that can be attained is unrivaled for a high school program. Couple that with more sportsmanship and as much teamwork as any other sport and you have the best thing I've ever seen. Watchability is a fuction of team performance and that will go up naturally as more teams spring up and the field gets denser in the north and south.
I'd rather see districts but whatever. Now put it back in Atlanta!  |
When most people say they are quitting, I don't think they mean quitting their robotics teams. I think they mean that they won't compete with their teams in FIRST anymore and instead compete in another competition such as VRC. There isn't anything wrong with that either. No one is obligated to stick to FIRST since it's not the only competition around that promotes STEM and they shouldn't be scrutinized just because they do switch. I'm pretty sure these mentors do get FIRST and if they believe competing in FIRST is no longer in their team's best interest, then there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, if a competition could end up discouraging teams so much that they end up leaving FIRST, perhaps there is something wrong with the decisions being made or that have already been made. I'm all for expansion but maybe the focus should be on districts and super regional instead of dividing championships.