While I agree that there certainly are some terrific rookies, I am going to take the other side.
I do not know the exact numbers that rookies started last season and began this season, so I took a sample of 200 teams from 1500-1700, all of which I believe were rookies last year. According to the
master list, only 152 of those teams survive to this day. That means that each year, 25% of rookies fold due to lack of funding support or student/mentor interest.
I'm not sure about you, but I was pretty shocked at that statistic.
FIRST realizes that in order to promote the robotics competition, teams have to survive for more than a year. While I am not sure if this rule was in effect last year (I get the feeling from this thread that it was not) I'm willing to bet that many of the teams that folded due to lack of funding did go to Championships. Maybe they had the time of their lives, or maybe they didn't realize what they were getting into and got destroyed.
I have not looked up which teams went and which teams proceeded to fold, but I'm fairly sure that FIRST did a little research on the topic. Though this rule seems irrational and unfair, especially to good rookies who didn't qualify with an award, FIRST is forcing them to save their money so that they will be able to create a longer-lasting team.