[SpaceBiz]

Some predictions for 50 years from now

-FRC will be larger in Europe than it is today in the US and Canada
-More than 95% of high schools with 1000+ students in the US will have a FIRST or similar (like VEX) program at their high school.
-FRC will adopt a four-tier system similar to FLL to accommodate the extremely large number of teams in North America.
-It is accepted that no one will ever break the OP robotics streak of 23 regionals because almost all first level (as in you don't need to qualify) events are comparable to today's district events.
-The record for the most district event wins in a row will be more than 23.
-Major Powerhouse teams will have a large following of people who were never team members, mentors, or associated with the team in a similar way.
-These teams will earn profits by licensing apparel and/ or other merchandising
-These teams will also have sponsors primarily interested in sponsoring for brand visibility similar to NASCAR sponsors today (albeit for less money and secondarily as a charitable act)
-ESPN and other networks will pay real money to have the video rights to events at the highest levels of play. This will help cover some or all registration costs for the most competitive offseason events. (Think IRI)
-Electronics/Robotics brands will also sponsor events at high levels of play and FIRST itself for brand visibility.
-All events you need to qualify for will have announcers/anchors talking about the prior match and the next match similar to how they do it at IRI today. This will make watching only one live stream more entertaining.
-There will be a weekly match highlights show produced in a similar fashion to NFL RedZone. By adapting it for FRC the major difference will probably be a longer delay. This will allow for people to effectively watch FRC recreationally when there are hundreds of smaller events going on at once.
-Fantasy FRC will be mainstream, not as big as fantasy football, but still offered by major fantasy sites like ESPN. Many people will play for money.
-There will have been multiple end games that have required flying minibots
-Chairman's wins at super-district championships (third level of four) will consistently do more than what our hall of fame teams currently do
-Dean's list will have more than 4 levels compared to today's three
-Almost or all dean's list winners will get a full ride to the college of their choice
-The total value of prizes excluding scholarships for those who win will exceed $30000
-The second highest level of dean's list (today's Dean's list finalists) will receive prizes similar in value to today's winners
-FIRST will have almost achieved its goal of sufficiently achieving recognition of Science and Technology within the US and Canada. Most efforts will now be to achieve this in other less developed countries.
-FIRST will pursue closing the gender imbalance in other countries more than in the US and Canada.
-Almost everyone will know what you are talking about when you reference FIRST as a noun
-IRI or the comparable event 50 years from now will make IRI this year look like childsplay. People will look back at footage from stronghold and think about how simple FRC was back in 2016.