[Ben Mitchell]

The format of FVC, as KathieK so eloquently put it, allows teams who do not have the resources to form a FRC team to learn about design and engineering principles in the format of a robotics game, and play against and with teams from around the world.

It also had, in my personal opinion, a lot of educational value. As someone going into the field of Technology Education, Vex is something that I can do in a classroom, since it doesn't involve machine shops (which a school might or might not have) and dangerous components. Vex is also small and easy to keep in a classroom, reusable (to cut down operating costs) and very powerful for its size. It has the perfect mix of "open-endedness" (is that a word?) and contraints to keep students from getting lost in all the design parameters.

Hopefully some solution will come to pass - I think the FTC program fills an important niche.