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Originally Posted by bellpride
I don't think other teams would think worse of you if you choose to make that decision. When FTC switched to the Tetrix kit, 254 and 1114 both switched exclusively to VRC (1114 already had a VRC team), and a quite a few FRC teams started VRC teams this year, like 148. Others like 294 chose to keep both and participate in three programs.
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We've never done FRC, but we had three FTC teams in 2007-2008 (and two the year before) when FIRST used VEX. In 2008-2009 we had five VRC and three FTC teams. No one in the local FIRST community has said a single negative word about our participating in VRC. I wouldn't worry about it in any event, but it's good to remember that the FIRST volunteers and students who "get it" won't care which program you participate in as long as you remember the mission of service to youth.
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I don't think there can be a clear comparison between the two. IFI has chosen to keep costs low and to provide a cheap(er) way for students to participate in robotics, but FIRST seems to have other ideas.
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Based on what our students want to do and the realities of the relative costs, we are fielding one FTC team and 6-8 VRC teams this upcoming year. The deciding factors came down to three things: product ease of use and reliability, cost, and our experience at championship events. Most of our students prefer the VEX platform, the mentors prefer the cost of VEX, and the VEX World Championships are a LOT more fun for the middle-sized robotics teams than Atlanta. I know FIRST tries, but Atlanta is for FRC -- we felt like second-class citizens at Championships (at least in 2008).
Somewhere around here I have an Excel spreadsheet that some team put together comparing the programs in detail. Send me a PM if you would like a copy. This is NOT my spreadsheet, by the way, I'm just passing along someone else's evaluation. Unfortunately, I do not know who wrote it originally. YMMV.