[nic_radford]

As far as luck goes, when a team wins its 4th national title in the time they've been involved with FIRST (I think 71 has been in FIRST for 8 yrs or so) you can't really say it's luck. When the probability of an event occurring is around 50%, it's not really luck; it's obviously an effect from a cause. Now, I'm not saying that a one regional team can't win a national championship, they obviously can, but it's hard not to spot a trend.

I agree FIRST is more about just winning; I don't think any of us need to hear that. But let's not overlook the part where FIRST is also about winning. Why else do we have competitions? Why else have matches? Why else have national champions crowned? Sure, we could all build a robot in 6 weeks, ship it, and then just have a fun day in an arena where we drive them around showing each other our different designs oooing and ahhing over them and then go our separate ways without any concluding ending such as the definitive nature of competition. But somehow I believe this would be less effective on the INSPIRATION part of FIRST. We should not shy away from showing kids that the real world operates by resourcefulness. If a team can go to 6 regionals, compete and win a national title every single year, then so be it. It will force teams to become more resourceful in how they prepare to handle that team. Listen to what Dean said about outsourcing. I believe it was a similar theme. Let's not become complacent and gripe that the competition is kicking our butts because they are becoming more resourceful than we are. Adapt...change....modify....and I believe that our modification is to better prepare our robots for the competition. Y'all may argue over the semantics to best achieve this goal. But I would NEVER say that we shouldn't try to win a national title because that's not what FIRST is about. Granted the experience of FIRST is an engraining one, leaving an impression on the thickest of heads. But I also think it could sink even further if they had a competively successful experience. I don't want to send the message to our kids that accepting the fact that our robot was out gunned and out prepared is ok. If we don't move to change that, then we might as well be outsourced.