[Jan Olligs]

Karie, you are probably right. FIRST is probably not as exciting to watch for "externals" as for example Battle Bots. I personally prefer the non-destructive of FIRST, though, and I have to admire the ingenuity that some teams built their robots with.
And as I see it, the pushing matches are especially interesting: Either you have a weaker and a stronger robot and the driver of the weakre robot has to figure out a way to trick their oppnent team's robot, or both robots have equal strength and both driver have to find a way to win ultimately. In the Langley regional that became, as far as I remember, sometimes to a chase through the zones, which was thrilling to watch, especially if you follow the countdown timer on the screen.
Of course, that is just how I see the mayches and does not have to do anything with the "general audience". But considering the diversity of the people that are "out there", it might be interesting for quite a few...