Quote:
Originally posted by sevisehda
I see 1 problem with this years competition. Too many people complaining about one of the most amazing opportunities they will ever have. When I was in High School I saw plenty of things I saw that were wrong about FIRST. But in comparison to all the fun I had and the opportunities FIRST gave me those minor problems didn't seem to matter. If you think there are huge problems with FIRST then simply don't sign up for the team. If you have an issue send an email to someone who can do something at FIRST. Complaining about things on a 3rd party forum is going to change much if anything.
|
I couldn't agree more with you. FIRST has never been about this year's game vs that year's game. It is about inspiring young people into the ideas of engineering, science and technology. The competition is merely a way to focus it. For more than ten years, that has been the goal of FIRST, to inspire high school children into going into complex fields of engineering, mathematics, science, etc. This can be seen by the numbers of scholarships given out by engineering schools to those who participate in FIRST. I mean come on, 13 and a half million plus dollars in scholarships is
amazing, for anything! FIRST will continue to do what they have been doing since inception, because it is accomplishing its goal. Many people who do participate in this program go on to become engineers, programmers, scientists and other important fields for the future. I'm glad FIRST has done so well in doing so.
As for this year's game, I don't think the full-potential of the game was used, thats all. I loved the concepts of this game more than previous competitions. We probably will never see the full-potential of this game utilized, but I can honestly say that this was a good game, if you knew where to look. I have discussed this in depth with numerous people, and I do accept that if the ramp was worth only like 5 or ten points per bot, there would have been a drastic change in some robot designs and strategies. But overall this was a great year for FIRST.