[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by SpaceBiz

Lower cost by a factor of at least 10, along with lower time and space commitment allows clubs to start up much easier, and for students with other commitments to more easily get involved.

Those were a couple points I forgot to mention. While most of the skill contests I was confident my students do not currently know how to do, I was also confident that if we spent as much time on any one of them as we do on FRC, that we would certainly win every time. The level of competition in Skills has not yet been taken to the insane level that it has in FRC. Your average person still has a chance at winning.

As for safety at the event, I think it comes from the venue being filled by people who all have been trained in safety in their school's instructional program.

As for crowd control, I did feel like the event was a lot less crowded. Fewer people per square foot in the venue. Also, there were lots of convention poles and curtain things (waist height) roping off the various contest areas, but you could still walk right up to them and be 10 feet away from the contestants and have a very good view of what they were doing.