[archiver]

Posted by Tom Vanderslice, Student on team #275, ORHS/AST/Hitachi, from Academy of Science and Technology and Hitachi.

Posted on 4/5/99 8:57 PM MST


In Reply to: Please Convince Me posted by Chris on 4/5/99 6:36 PM MST:



Before I start I'll say I walk the fence on the multiple regionals thing.

But I will say this, you seem to agree that multiple regionals is a
competitive advantage...

: In other words, a competitive advantage or a free trip is not a real added value.

Now the fact of the matter is that this is a competition. Yes, it is
great that FIRST is a good learning experience and you get a technical
education and support the 'spirit, ideals, and mission of FIRST.' But
it still comes down to the fact that this is a competition. And in a
competition you have people who win and people who lose, that's the
way it goes, and unfortunantely very few teams can win, and everyone
accepts that by entering the competition. Everyone who enters FIRST
and shows up with a robot is a 'winner' they have accomplished something
they can be proud of, but in the end it must come down to one team (well
3 teams, 1 alliance) winning, and everyone else losing. The teams that
lose can still be very proud of their accomplishments, but the teams that
win have something extra to be proud of, and in the end everyone's happier
if they win. Now, I'm not saying the technical education and other things
are less important in the 'grand scheme of things' than the competitive
advantage, in fact, they are probably more important, but in the end
a competitive advantage is a serious advantage.

My 2 cents,
Tom