Is FRC truly competitive?

[LeelandS]

This quote came to mind:

Originally Posted by JVN, Team 148

When it comes to FIRST (you've all heard the cliche) -- we're all winners. When it comes to the competition: to the engineering design challenge, we're NOT all winners -- some solutions are better than others.

By being a part of FIRST, everyone learns, everyone benefits. We're all winners in that aspect. But as JVN said, we are taking part in a challenge. And through that challenge, we do all learn. But at the end of the day, and not all of us like to admit it, there are winners, and there are losers. That's how it goes, it's the nature of the beast. It's not the sole focus of FRC to win the game and go home with a gold medal, but that's part of what we do. We learn, we design the best robot we can using what we've learned, we build it using what we've learned, and we compete as graciously as possible. The matches, the game, the winning and the losing is all just an ends to the mean; learning.

No, competition is not the focus of FIRST. No way you can say it is. Building the future is what FIRST is about. The competition is set to give the kids something to strive for. It's hard to just say, build a robot and have it do something. When you have a competition, you give kids an incentive to push themselves, to come up with solutions that no one else comes up with. The competition may not be the main ideal of FIRST, but it is a part of it. FIRST is truly competitive, just not for the sake of being a competition.

I hope this helps!