I believe FIRST is a competition in a different sense, in more ways than one. I really like how Ken worded that so I'm gonna keep that term. Here is my main reason
School Sports vs FIRST
As an athlete for my school since 7th grade, multi-tasking between robotics and sports has always been important to me. One of the major things I have noticed and commented on often is the differences in interaction between athletes at a competition and robotics students at a regional or in Atlanta.
Maybe it's just my experience yelling at me, but I've noticed that the FIRST concept of "co-opetition", i.e., competing against a team in one match and with them in the next, that sets apart this organization from sports. While growth in engineering, science, and business are outstanding themes throughout the build, competition, and off seasons, at competition team ethic is a primary focus.
Many of my closest friends come from FIRST. 63.75% of my buddylist is made up of random people that I have meet either at competition, on the FIRST cht, or through some aspect of the program. That is a pretty hefty number. This level of interaction between individuals on different teams comes from the stress on team ethic in the program and in the team. Many FIRSTers cheer for more teams than just their own or their alliance at the time, which results in unique bonds between many teams.
Yes, at competition FIRST is a contest in a sense, but is that truly a bad thing? A person's ability to conduct themselves in a competitive environment, whether with grace or with irresponsiblity, is the measure of their capabilities in many other situations. Most importantly, in this "contest", people are given the opportunity to rise above a bad name they may have made for themselves and remedy their relationships by giving back.
A competition is a competition, but just as Karen said perfectly, we do it better than that...
- Genia