[KenWittlief]

Theres really two parts to FIRST, the game that is played, and which changes every year, and the mentors spending time with the students to show them what engineering is all about

the game is arbitrary - we could design dishwashers, or clocks, or egg droppers - any system that presents an engineering challenge, so the students get to experience an entire engineering design cycle.

FIRST trys hard to make the game itself reasonably fair, so that all teams are designing to the same requirements, playing by the same rules

but the other part: if fairness is a measure of FIRST, then no, that part is not fair. Some teams have tons of mentors and resources, and some have little or none. Fortunately we are not competing against each other to see who is the 'most inspired'.

but on the playfield, would you contend that some football teams should be allowed to have 50 players on the field at the same time, because they come from a big school with lots of kids who all want to play?