[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

Teams are willing to help and give stuff out, but in the end, their sole purpose is selfishness. All they want is points and reputation.

You may have had an experience this weekend that led you to believe this, but I guarantee that this is not true for most of the teams in FIRST. Take this for example, those teams had no points or reputation to gain, all the judging has already been completed by that time. They had nothing to gain by making the gesture that they did, and in fact could have been eliminated because of it, but they did it anyway.

It was more like a fashion show than an actual robot competition. All the teams were trying to advertise their team by wearing stupid costumes and decorating their pits.

If you asked one of these people why they were singing or dancing or dressing a certain way you would probably find that it has very little to do with advertising their team. FRC regionals provide an environment for students (and professional engineers) where it is perfectly safe and acceptable to "let loose" and sing dance, wear funny hats, and generally have a good time for a weekend.

I would suggest, as others have in this thread, that you give FIRST at least one more shot. I will also suggest however, that FRC isn't for everyone. It's perfectly fine to decide that this competition isn't for you. There are many other science, engineering, and robotics competitions that may be more what you are looking for.

My school is not very rich, I know that the "richer" schools got a lot more funding than us, but I am not complaining about that. I seen some AMAZING robots this regional, unfortunately its the only regional we can attend, since we lack the funding. Well since our school is not very rich, our sports department lacks fancy uniforms and equipments.

Most of the "richer" teams do not get funding from their schools. They get it from a combination of corporate sponsors and fundraising such as car washes, bake sales, etc. Most or all of these teams work very hard for what they have.

Since I am in Football and Track, I seen professionalism. We show professionalism by not talking with our mouths but the scoreboard. IDK, I think FIRST competition system is not the best system... In before flames. I am sure there are people out there with similar ideas...

In football and track, the goal is to win on the scoreboard as you have stated. In FRC the most prestigious award is earned off the field. FRC is about changing the culture and our most prestigious award recognizes that. The Chairman's award is earned with your mouth, not on the scoreboard.