[Gdeaver]

There is a tendency to only look at the physical robot and its performance. A robots performance and capabilities are only one part of the competition. The way the competition rules are lade out only 8 robots are placed into the finals based on performance , not 24. The rest are picked. This brings a big human factor into the competition. For the other 12 robots they chosen based on the subjective evaluation of human beings. This is not engineering, this is marketing. If your team has performed well year after year placing in the top rankings and not been picked then you might want to look at your marketing plan. Do you have one?. This is what I like about First. It mimics the real world business problems. Doing first is like starting and running a company. In todays market designing a great and superior product doesn't guarantee a companies success. Today a company can make a lousy product and be very successful by having a superior marketing effort. This can be true for first too. I've been a small business owner for 24 years now and I can say that our market based economy is not fair, life is not fair. However there are rules in our society both written and natural. Learning to adapt and play with in the boundaries of the rules is part of being successful in life. Participating in First is practicing the skills needed for life and it's a whole lot of fun. We just need to be vigilant as the program grows and changes to keep it that way.