[216Robochick288]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

Fourth, do we have the support for FTC tournaments? If existing middle school FLL teams turn into FTC teams, there would be 100-200 new teams. Are there events? How about up north? It took 5 years to get a FRC event in the UP, how long will it take for FTC? And what do teams do in the meantime?

Great question. As a mentor and leader in one of the most densely populated FIRST areas in the UP my answer is... I have no idea. Superior Roboworks, The Copperbots, and Robotic Turmoil was going to have a huge push in all the lower grades to get more interest in FLL and a few years down the line start switching to FTC. Its hard enough getting funds for us to go places, and the FLL teams run baised on the fact that we have a tournament just a few hours away in Marquette (and hopefully one at Tech soon too).

As for FTC... I guess we will see. Hopefully FIRST will find us the support to get enough teams interested that we can host our own tournament in the UP. Tech certainly has the kids and mentors to run something, but they have certainly twisted our arm on what we have to work with. Certainly not the gradual switch we were hoping for.