[fargus111111111]

I am somewhat relieved that they are even considering an event after "Champs" to become the new Championships because, as my team was discussing the other day, that is what IRI would otherwise become. I am concerned about this format though due to travel costs. Our team certainly is not one of the richest, but we have decent funding and two regionals plus champs stretched our budget this year. I am more optimistic about the district model and advancing through a series of competitions that way, resulting in lower travel costs but potentially more competitions. Also if FIRST is so focused on getting a set percentage of FRC teams to champs why do they not seem to care about FTC or FLL. I find their interpretation of the data odd. If the average response is 4.45 then that suggests to me that while it is not a strong opposition there is an opposition. I am concerned that FIRST seems to be ignoring the community they are supposed to serve. If they truly wanted the community's opinion they would have done a study asking x number of people, students and mentors from each team to complete the survey instead of whoever in the community felt like it. I am concerned about the direction FRC is going. While the game this year was exiting and competitive it did not have the same viewing appeal that many other games have had. If FIRST wants to keep this competition interesting and keep encouraging new people to get involved they need the high level of competition ON the field with the same Olympic high stakes. Last year we went to an off season event and took a number of new members with us. When we returned we asked them what they thought about the competition and one replied, "I thought is was going to be just a bunch of nerds standing quietly around a field watching their robot, I could not have been more wrong." This is the impression that FIRST needs to make on people however I am concerned that if they continue straight down the path they are on the competition will slowly die off and it will become a bunch of nerds standing around a field quietly watching their robot. Please FIRST hear us out, we want competition, this is supposed to be like the olympics right, not Tee-Ball. (although that could be an interesting robot game)