[AndyB]

I think we must first figure out what our goals are. FIRST's vision is to spread an interest in science, math, engineering, and technology to young people. Competition is what helps to do this. The sports-like atmosphere that FIRST offers is what draws a lot of people in and even more importantly, unlike almost any other sport, allows them to get involved in almost any way.

We hear Dean (for those of us that actually stay awake during kickoff) talk about how kids look to athletes as role models and how they aspire to play sports instead of doing something with a higher upside. I understand where you are coming from Sean in asking the question of whether or not a sports-like atmosphere will lead to sports-like problems, and you are right in asking this question.

However, unlike sports, FIRST stresses gracious professionalism, and we have to take into account that the competition is only 2 or 3 days out of the year. The other 362 days of the year are what makes FIRST unlike any sport out there. I would like to point out that any complaints you hear on Chief Delphi about teams getting "screwed" during the course of the competition come from people who haven't gotten yet, or missed the point.

On a side note, who wouldn't pay $500,000 for Karthik's jersey?