Is FRC truly competitive?

[EricH]

FIRST Robotics Competition. How is it a Competition instead of a Coopertition?

Off the field, it's definitely a cooperative environment. Teams supplying each other with parts, talking about strategy, sharing scouting data.

But on the field? There is a winner. There is a loser. Every match. Yes, that is the case. But does the loser really lose? Well, yes. Whether it's by one point or by a hundred, the loser gets a larger number in the loss column, and the winner gets larger number in the win column.

Intangibly, however, it is not a complete loss. Strategic knowledge is gained. Robot skills are displayed for the benefit of scouts (think something like the NFL combine).

If you're going to define competition such that net gain is zero, then FRC is not competition.

But, I would argue that whoever says that net gain must be zero is wrong. Note the intangibles I mentioned above. Or, I can think of a few very competitive companies--they're rivals in their fields--that are constantly pushing each other's envelope in the pursuit of new customers. Experience vs quality vs cost vs service vs continuous improvement vs adaptability... The battle rages on, and the only losers are the ones who can't keep up with customer demands as the winners of customer money produce parts for the customer.

In that sort of competition, net gain is positive, and yet it is still a competition, without much if any cooperation.

FRC is still a Competition. But it is one that has a higher ideal--Coopertition--as its end goal. The only question is, who's gonna get there first and give the rest of us a hand up?

[msimon785]

Originally Posted by EricH

FIRST Robotics Competition. How is it a Competition instead of a Coopertition?

Off the field, it's definitely a cooperative environment. Teams supplying each other with parts, talking about strategy, sharing scouting data.

But on the field? There is a winner. There is a loser. Every match. Yes, that is the case. But does the loser really lose? Well, yes. Whether it's by one point or by a hundred, the loser gets a larger number in the loss column, and the winner gets larger number in the win column.

Intangibly, however, it is not a complete loss. Strategic knowledge is gained. Robot skills are displayed for the benefit of scouts (think something like the NFL combine).

If you're going to define competition such that net gain is zero, then FRC is not competition.

But, I would argue that whoever says that net gain must be zero is wrong. Note the intangibles I mentioned above. Or, I can think of a few very competitive companies--they're rivals in their fields--that are constantly pushing each other's envelope in the pursuit of new customers. Experience vs quality vs cost vs service vs continuous improvement vs adaptability... The battle rages on, and the only losers are the ones who can't keep up with customer demands as the winners of customer money produce parts for the customer.

In that sort of competition, net gain is positive, and yet it is still a competition, without much if any cooperation.

FRC is still a Competition. But it is one that has a higher ideal--Coopertition--as its end goal. The only question is, who's gonna get there first and give the rest of us a hand up?

That is an incredibly accurate way of putting it. Anyone who foolishly states that a loss in a competitive match is in effect worthless has never attended an FRC competition. Not only is strategical and game-specific knowledge gained, but so are Gracious Professionalism and coopertition (I understand that there are some who find the use of these two ethos of FIRST to be cliché, but I think that they are both impertinent values).

[Koko Ed]

Of course FIRST is competitive. If it wasn't they why do the better teams bother scouting, testing and improving their robots, training their drive teams, coming up with strategies for each and every match and diligently working in the pits on their robot between matches to keep them at top form.
If you really want to see how truly competitive FIRST is look no further than IRI or Saturday afternoon in April in St. Louis.