Quote:
Originally Posted by Kleiman
This new system is essentially squeezing out small, but currently sustainable teams in favor of big budget, mentor heavy teams that already have robust programs. The only advantage I can see here is more rounds of play for better value. The trade off is taking away the entire FIRST experience from smaller scale teams. We were alliance captains and semi-finalists this year. Next year, I am nearly certain that our team must fold. This is deeply disappointing.
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On the other hand, teams Toronto have been extremely fortunate to have such an arrangement with TDSB. I have really enjoyed meeting with all of the Toronto area teams and I hope that one day Ottawa will have just as many up and coming young teams. But out here we get no funding assistance from our school boards and without the momentum of having FIRST already established in the region, many FRC teams in Ottawa struggle to find sponsors too. You could count the number of active Ottawa area FRC teams on one hand, and for each of those, I can name you another team that used to run but either had to fold or switched to VEX.
Teams that formerly had to scrape together $5000USD just to go to one regional may have to work a little bit harder to get to $7500 Cdn but for that money will be able to attend two events. More value for the money and I would argue a better educational experience than just going to one competition, as you get to do the cycle of compete-iterate-improve.
And while the current and new district events are still all GTA centered, I am hoping that eventually there may be enough growth out this way that a district event in Ottawa or Kingston might be considered.