I'll answer something completely different. This is something that predates me in FIRST but I know there are a few floating around who can remember this. One of the most significant events in FIRST history happened when there happened to be more than one Regional competition. At first, there was only the regional in New Hampshire. In 1997 (I believe), FIRST added a regional the Mid-Atlantic Regional and the Midwest Regional. Without the adding of these events, FIRST would never have been able to grow to the size it is today. I also found a link to FIRST's press release about it:
http://web.archive.org/web/199703032...ws/961029.html
Matt