Quote:
Originally Posted by lynca
Random sidenote:
The DiscoBots (2587) applied but were not accepted. I believe this is because the high # teams get much less respect in FIRST. I would be interested in the number of +2000 number teams that applied for Beta.
|
I doubt it is based on number, but a lot on notoriety and history with demonstrations, quality robots, reliability, etc. FIRST tends to know Hall of Fame teams, long standing veteran teams, etc. will be able to do this (not saying Disco Bots can't, I'm sure FIRST just didn't realize how you guys could help the beta test program). If there is someone with more notoriety in those areas very close to your team's region then they were probably picked over you.
Pardon me for tooting my team's horn, but my team has a long history of building reliably-programmed robots (not necessarily competitive :/) and does hundreds of demonstrations a year, plus my team had a successful year beta testing in 2008, so that's probably why my "high number team" got picked. Other teams likely have much the same story; notoriety in these fields makes them more likely to be picked. It's a shame as there are excellent teams that get overlooked (right off the bat I know team 2502 would be perfect for beta testing).
The short version is that teams don't get respect by their number, but by their reputation. Low number teams just have had more time to establish themselves.