irishninja, I know exactly what you are talking about. One of the main reasons for this is that Battlebots, Robotica, and Robot Wars were all made and designed to be television shows (bottom line: make money). FIRST on the other hand is made to change lives. The games in FIRST are not TV Friendly (ie smash kill, ADD, here is your winner, here is a loser robot on fire, next match, AXE commercial), the game rules are more complicated and need explaining (to most people more than once).
I agree with KokoEd, I like the place FIRST occupies right now, making steady progress and changing lives. On the other hand the "tons of national coverage" I would say is a bit of an overstatement ... go get lost in Aruba and see what "tons of national coverage" really is
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We need a lot more FIRST evangelists, the kind of people who can sell oily sprockets to old ladies wearing white gloves, to spread of the message for FIRST to the American public!