[Brandon Holley]

Getting past the "life isn't fair argument" which honestly, for the most part does not change someones opinion...

We measure a teams success in FIRST not by their regional wins, but by how they conduct themselves as a team, and how they conduct themselves to the FIRST community as well as the public community.

Just because your a "low budget" team doesn't automatically give you an excuse to go out there and complain that other teams have more money than you. How much real solid effort have you put into getting a sponsor? Believe me, I understand how hard it is to find a sponsor (especially in an area where FIRST is EXPLODING), but it isn't impossible, and it shouldn't be an excuse as to why you didn't get to go to Atlanta or you didn't win a regional.

Try and get past the squabbling that boils down to your team has more money than mine, and try to look at it is a challenge to say, i want my team to have as much money as yours, how can i do this. Maybe if winning competitions/getting to Atlanta is your end goal, the first goal should be to get your team financials established so that you may be able to compete at multiple regionals, and maybe then you will find yourselves in the ATL.

Hope it helps,
Brando