[Deke]

There are multiple things at play here so its not really a simple solution and growing pains are tough. There are many many ways to grow and expand an organization. Different people see different priorities as growth occurs and it can lead to disagreements.

Everyone knows that FIRST is for Inspiration and Recognition.

To me, inspiration and recognition comes from some cool stuff done by some pretty awesome people. How do you get cool stuff done by awesome people? You get them lured in somehow. How do you do that? With a sports model! This ignites growth in the program.

Like many others have said already, the competition is the vehicle. Slowing down the vehicle can slow down the growth. The championsplit does not completely extinguish the competitive fire, but it does not fuel it. It's a step closer to a science fair.

I love working with the kids, but if I had to choose between working with kids to enter a science fair or working with kids to build a robot to compete in a worldwide robotics competition, I'm choosing the later every time. How cool is that, a worldwide robotics competition!

Well, I guess there can be co world champions... that were at different locations... that didn't compete in the same tournament... that's pretty cool...