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Originally Posted by wilsonmw04
This would make perfect sense if the goal is to have the best robot performance competition possible. I think that have stated that was not their goal when they made this decision.
If you paid attention attention to what Dean and Woodie have been saying for the past 5-10 years you could have seen something like this coming. They consistently said, "it's not about the robot. It is just the vehicle. Take the good from the sports model but reject the negative side that comes with it." They (The board) are devaluing winning. I know that is going to rub some folks the wrong way. This move makes complete sense considering the goals they have set forth.
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All true and yes I've been listening to the Dean speeches for a long time (since 2003) although we haven't seen much of him up here in New England once we moved to Districts.
I'd be interested to hear their view on the district model which is a system that is results oriented. If your robot doesn't have the performance behind your awards you don't compete with it at your District Championship (minus the Chairmans winners they bring their robots but Engineering Inspiration and Rookie All-Star only let's you present and doesn't auto qualify your robot for the DCMP). I understand how it tackles the issue of needing to add so many regionals with 6 qualifying spots per event but at the same time it runs on a system that FIRST doesn't seem to agree with based off of their thinking with two Championships.
I think FIRST undervalues how well the competitive aspect of FRC mixed with Gracious Professionalism adds to their mission yet it seems like whenever we talk about the highest levels of competition it seems like they feel its against their mission. As it has been said before there will always be the occasional bad apples just like like in sports there are the happy go lucky people who think everyone is a winner and its all about the love of the game while the more negative side is always looking to be the top no matter what.
As we can see this is the downside of having FIRST's board and others at the top running the organization who have no experience with running or participating on a team in FIRST.