[Pat Roche]

FIRST is a tool that is partly responsible to teach our students about the real world along with inspire them to better it through math and science. Well here is a two very basic economics principles. Business isn't fair. Companies will always try to look for a competitive edge. Just like teams will always try to find a competitive edge. Do you tell a company they can make one product in one industry and not allow them to make a product in another industry if they can afford both? No. You let them make both. So if a team wants to go to a regional and compete at that regional let them. Our robot is our product. Competitions are our industries. So go out and try to maximize your profits.
The other principle is that of competition. Economically its better for two companies to compete. Competition is what makes us better. If a winning team wants to compete against me go for it. It will make me better for doing it. Competition is what pushes us to do what we haven't done before. Competition causes us to push the limits and grow. I don't know if it can get any more real world than that.

Just my $.02