Woa this thread has exploded within the past few days! Let's get Bill O'Reilly in here for some topic mediation!!
This new system is... well it's what it is. Different. And I think it's pretty much as fair as possible at the moment. FIRST is getting bigger, the expectations are getting higher. I think it's about time FIRST raised the bar a little. However, I'm also saddened that the awards aren't going to be
as important as they once were. What about Animation or the Inventor Awards??? The Regional Animation Award was just introduced last year, but what's going to happen with that this year??... Only time will tell, but my guess is that it will have absolutely no effect on competition qualification.
Also, with the veteran 1st year teams. They
should be allowed to come back year after year after year, not because they're "better" or more experienced, but just because they happen to be the first ones to get into this awesome thing known as FIRST. I know there are teams out there who do A LOT more than 1st year teams, but they weren't here first. Plain and simple.
Wow... that's probably as long as a post you'll get out of me for a while..
