[Ian W.]

You seem to be describing BEST, where each team pays effectively nothing, perhaps a bit of money for travel costs, and the regional hubs take care of all the money issues. From what I understand, BEST is kind of like a minature FIRST competition, everything is on a smaller scale, and teams return controllers at the end of each season.

I've never done BEST, but I like the idea of FIRST better, provided teams have the money for it, only because with FIRST, you gain a better sense of how the world works, dealing with issues like fundraising, but you also can build much more complex robots, but once again, you need the money.

So, bottom line, as I said last night in this thread (look a few posts up), if you have the money, do FIRST, everyone will have a great time. If you don't have the money, do BEST, inspire some kids, change their lives, you may not have as much fun (or fustration), but you'll at least have made a difference.