[Steve W]

My belief is that the main part of the thread (title) is about the platform change. There will be a lot of discussion on this one.

I for one do not support the change because of the cost to teams. There are a lot of schools that have invested heavily into the VEX line. I personally have over $700.00 invested so that I could learn the challenges that the kids have. I know that our school had 7 teams entered in competition last year. Two of which were from our robotics team and consisted of only rookies mentored by team members.

There is a lot of discussion going on now with VEX or FTC and from what I see, VEX is winning basically on $$$$$$$. Teamwork is essential and that includes sponsors, business and FIRST. I know that branding is important but even a BMW for $15,000.00 will not be purchased when people have invested heavily into another product and are happy with the performance of that product. FIRST really needs to decide what is important, the goals of FIRST or market share, sponsor involvement, making money, or what ever excuse comes along. Brand loyalty is one thing but giving up a great program because you need to reinvest in a totally new one is both unnecessary and unwise.