[estuckey17]

I have had a chance to do both FTC and VEX. We switched to VEX a few years ago because it was far cheaper to do so. We also didn't have very much interest in the robotics program, so VEX allowed us more flexibility. We were also able to pick which qualifier we wanted to go to (FTC does not have regionals in South Carolina), more teams get to compete longer, and we did not have to pay as much in travel costs since all of the competitions we ended up going to were in state. In my personal opinion, I prefer FTC because of the higher competition level and the fact that we get to travel more for competitions than we did with VEX. However, with FIRST, having a small team is hard to do since more jobs are given to fewer people. We were still able to have a successful season with about 10 people, but it's all your personal preference.