[Karibou]

As a Michigander, I ended up really liking the FiM system. I was originally dead set against it because it seemed confusing and unstable, and that we wouldn't get to compete with out-of-state teams (since it was decided early on that my team would not be travelling out of state; we would just do our two district events).

However, I did originally like the fact that we got two districts, with more plays than a regional, for the price of one, and that is still one of my favorite parts of the program. I know that in the past, some teams were unable to go to two regionals because of the cost, but the district setup allowed them to experience the thrill and fun of two districts, for the same amount they were paying in previous years. It also helped a lot of teams who were suffering from the economy. This past year, our team would most likely only be able to attend one event, since we lost our biggest sponsor (GM) and had to cut back on costs A LOT.

And despite the lack out out-of-state teams, there was still a lot of competition, and I ended up making a lot of new friends [:

The only thing that I still don't like is, while we get to play more matches, that also shortens the time we have between matches to make repairs. The time it now takes to load/configure (or whatever it's called) the code onto the robot almost made us miss a few matches at Kettering, because oftentimes we had both mechanical and software repairs to make.