[ColleenShaver]

I read your first few comments Nick- and this is all I have to say-

Rule and qualification changes in FIRST doesn't change the PEOPLE involved in FIRST.

We are still the same friendly people focused on inspiring kids about what science, technology, and the real world are about. Just because we're having to qualify like any other 'sports' team, doesn't mean we'll suddenly change attitudes.

It is the people that make this program, and it's those people, not rules, that make it good or bad.

This is my 7th year. I was there in the one-on-one-on-one days, I was there in the 2v2, and the 4v0 and now into the era of eliminatory games.

I've grown as a person through FIRST, I've learned the value of friendly competition, of helping another team cause later on you just might need the favor returned, of seeing things for what they were. That it's not the game that matters, but the road to the game, your attitude towards it, and the friends you make along the way.

And most importantly, it's only a game.

This is a competition, so let's compete. We are the same graciously professional people we were last year. It wasn't the program that was graciously professional, it isn't the program's attitude towards robotics that puts us in a different class from the likes of Battlebots and others.

Everyone wants to win, just like every year. It's nice to win. But changing rules does not change people or their attitudes.

And it's a sad day in FIRST if it did- cause that means the people in this program aren't all I had them cracked up to be.