[sgreco]

I'm going to make a huge generalization, but...

A lot of the time older teams have an easier time finding a good strategy for playing the game. They gain experience because they have seen more game types and know what works. Older teams often have more resources than newer teams as well. (I don't mean for this to apply to all teams, there are many awesome newer teams)(I also don't mean to offend anyone by this).

It takes a while to build a good FIRST team. It takes an amazing team to be national competitor quality every year from the beginning. For some teams it can take a few years to get to a highly competitive level. It just takes a lot of dedication and hard work.

In my opinion: hats off to any team that can always be a legitimate threat at regionals and nationals.

Atlanta should consist of the best robots out there, regardless of how often they are there. Getting to Atlanta is a priviledge. If a team is good enough to build a highly competitive robot every year, then they deserve to go to Atlanta every year.