[Cory]

To clarify, I didn't mean overall. I would have to say the finals at nationals were among the most competitive I have ever seen, and there were a lot of very great, innovative robots across the board.

From my experience on the West Coast, from regional to regional, the competition was less stiff. Perhaps this wasn't noticed so much in the midwest where the team growth rate is much higher (I would assume) and is adequate enough to cover any new regionals that are started.

I just thought of another reason which is probably more accurate. My guess is that a large number of teams tried to build robots to accomplish every part of the game, and then many found out that they couldnt perform very well in any one part of the game.

Cory