[jman4747]

Originally Posted by BrennanB

Maybe we could. Why fix it if it is already working fantastically well??? Or are you saying FIRST is currently doing a subpar job?




For all those "It's not about the robot" points, an interesting analogy that I have been thinking about is as follows:

FIRST isn't about the robot, it's about the destination.

Traveling isn't about the plane/car/train you take, it's where you end up that matters.

Robots are like your car, they get you to where you want to be. While ultimately the way you get to your destination matters little, you would be silly to say that the way that it does it is irrelevant.

You would rather drive a Lamborghini than a Dodge Caravan.

You would rather have a competition that recognizes those that deserve recognition.

Doesn't matter how I look at it, but owning a Lamborghini will always be more inspiring than owning 100 dodge caravans.

Going to an event where the entire world comes to compete, will always be more inspiring than going to 100 events where only some of the teams compete under the same roof.

Doubt we will get to 100 different champs or even 10...

Dodge caravans have gotten our robots to several events in a pinch. But when we go to a big and or out of state competition and one of our sponsors loans us a Mercedes Sprinter it's much better. The dodge does the job but upgrading to the Sprinter is more optimal. Engineers optimize and prioritize all the time and so should FIRST. Deal with the trade offs and leverage the benefits.

I don't think FIRST has done a bad job in the past but this system was designed with future challenges in mind, a good feature for any system.

Other sports teams and organizations don't serve the same purpose and subsequently neither do their competition structures. It can and has worked but we can still make it our own.