[Lil' Lavery]

Some of my points have been alluded to already, but teams are absolutely entitled to submit wherever they please.

First off, teams should submit each and every year. A team should not be forced or pressured into taking a year off for any reason, even to let other teams win. Especially considering you have to win a regional to be considered for the Chairman's Award in Atlanta, which should be that teams ultimate goal (in terms of Chairman's).

Seconly, teams are entitled to submit wherever they please. Some teams only attend on regional, and that limits their choices. Others prefer to submit at local/home events. Others prefer to submit a new place each year (612, until this year when they're submitting at VCU for the second time, had submitted at and won a different event each of the past three years). If they want to factor in other teams, they can, but taht's up to them.

Thirdly, do you really want to win knowing that another team had to bow out in order for you to do so? Is that win really any more meaningful than placing behind them now? At least to me, seeing a feedback form praising my team and telling us how to improve is satisfactory enough.
I know I was ecstatic when my high school team won RCA at the NYC regional last year, but ultimately (aside of the evening of joy afterwards) it's no more meaningful than the four years of feedback sheets with the "currently strong" boxes checked in every category that we recieved before we won. We knew that we had done our part, we had impacted our community (and beyond), spread love and dedication to science and technology, changed lives, and presented the hell out of our submission to the judges. We knew that the judges were impressed. But we also knew that 341, 612, 1002 and every other team we "lost" to had done the same, and we strove to be even more like them. We worked harder and longer, and continued to improve.


I guess my bottom line is; If you're in the Chairman's Award just to win the Chairman's Award, you're doing it for all the wrong reasons. The award is there as a goal to strive for, but it shouldn't be the reason why you conduct yourself and reach out to your community and beyond the way you do.