[MrTechCenter]

I think FIRST is really missing one of the key elements of the entire FIRST program here. This blog post made it clear that they want to inspire lower-tier teams by letting them come to Champs, but is that really going to do the job when your team was just given a golden ticket? I think it's much more rewarding to inspire teams in other ways, so that their first trip to Champs (when they've earned it) is a much greater feeling. If teams are just going to get off the waitlist, wouldn't that instill some kind of mentality where a team would just wait a few years until the next time they can get in off the waitlist?

One of the key parts of FIRST is preparing students for the real world. In the real world, you don't get handouts. You have to earn your way to the top. Sure, if you got a little taste of "how the other half lives" you'd probably want to experience it again, right? And you'd probably be willing to work a little harder to get there, right? Sure, in some cases this is probably true. But I've seen teams that went to champs one year tank hard the next. That's just the way it is, and we can try to change it as a community, but this isn't the way.