[LeelandS]

Food for thought:

In 2008 (I picked an arbitrary year), 340 teams attended champs, out of 1499 who competed. That means the percentage of teams who attended the event was 22.6% of all teams. So almost a quarter of teams who competed in 2008 attended the event.

3 years later, in 2011, this had decreased, to 17.1%. 351 teams attended champs, while 2053 teams competed. In a 3 year span, FRC saw a near-600 team growth, but only 19 slots opened at championship. This trend continued further, into last year: 2014.

In 2014, 397 teams attended the championship event, while a whopping 2696 competed overall. That translated to 14.7% of competing teams qualifying for champs.

The point I'm driving at is, a smaller and smaller chunk of teams get to experience championships every year. People keep driving at, championships are going to be less inspiring because all the best teams aren't going to be at a single one. But what's more inspiring; seeing a "watered down" championships, or not seeing champs at all? For me, at least, as a former student turned mentor, champs was about the energy. The passion. The electricity. I don't remember a single match from when I was student at champs. But I remember being with my team, I remember running around the stadium. I remember seeing signs and decorations, hearing guest speakers celebrate us and what we do. It was the time of my life. Just being there set me down the road to where I am now. A mentor, a volunteer. A guide to these students. Words can't express how proud I am of that.

That brings us to 2015. Almost 3000 teams are competing this year, 2892. We've already been told that we will be hosting 600 teams at this event. 600/2892 = 20.7%. The highest percent we've had attending since 2008. Which is a great step forward. After an 8% decline over 7 years, we gain 6% back in one year. But what are we sacrificing to accomplish this? We are literally packing two championship events into one arena. 8 Division, two Einsteins. I'm not a logistics person, but that seems like a lot for a single venue to hold. FIRST is growing, and with that, it is becoming harder and harder to provide as many students as possible with an experience like mine. We're already packing 2 champs into one building, so doesn't the next logical step seem to be expanding?

Consider this: In 2017, we'll say 800 teams attend champs, 400 per event. let's ballpark the team count that year at 3500. Just an estimate. 800/3500 = 22.8%. Boom. We're back to where we were 7 years ago. FIRST will have more than doubled in size but we are still providing the same percentage of teams with the championship experience. Diluted? Yes. But to students who have never gone before, inspiring all the same.

I am as hardened a competitor as anyone else. My students constantly tell me to take a chill pill. But I can't. Competition is in my blood and I love pushing and driving my team to improve and do better. Yes, I would love a centralized event where the elite teams can play-off. Maybe with some relaxed rules. Some corn dogs and goats. But hey, that can't be possible, right? Oh.

Competition is exciting for me. But if we start depriving kid's learning and experience in FIRST for the sake of competition, then what have we really become? Everyone asks me if what I do is like Battlebots. And I proudly tell them no. But if FIRST is all about competition, then isn't it the same? I'm in the program to help kids learn and grow as people; a lot of people are in that same boat. And if we are going to accomplish that goal, then we need to get kids exposed to an event with the passion and energy of a world championship.