I have to agree with everyone here, even though there are two opposite opinions about this regional.
I -MUST- say that even after the first two days destroyed every bit of optimism, most (but not all) of the teams still played a fair game with their head high.
We worked on our robot, like everyone did, on every available moment just for those six and a half minutes of glory.
We didn't let any problem to get us down - we just kept on playing.
This competition is much more than winning or playing - it's a life chaging event.
The fact that we had a fully-functional robot, after all we have been through, as a team of only 17 years old was enough to make us happy.We just knew that we did it, even if we didn't have the chance to "show off" our bot.
First have, and will allways have place in israel. I saw all the teams helping each other - if its giving away your classmate's battery even if you have a match 5 minutes later or fixing your opponents' bot 5 minutes before your game (both happened to me and i know it happened to many more).
It was my second year in First after re-opening our school , and im sure there will be a third year. A few communication problems won't take us down
A really big off-season event is a "must have" in this situation, and we will get there.
I hope to see all the teams next year, and of course many of the awesome rookie teams (12 of them!!) who made awesome bots for a first year!
Yaar,Team 1578.