[FRC Blog] Frank Answers Fridays: June 7, 2013

[bardd]

Originally Posted by EricH

Israel went from 12 teams to 30 or 40 in 1-2 years once the regional got started. Most of those teams are still around, and the regional is now attracting some U.S. teams in addition to the "locals".

OTOH, Brazil did something similar at about the same time, I think with a few more teams. That didn't work out for more than a couple of years--there is now no Brazil Regional, and fewer teams. Other than Israel, there are no regionals south of the U.S. border (Hawaii doesn't count as south of the border) at this time.

I think the reason the Israeli regional survived it's first couple of years is that it was an Israeli initiative instead of a FIRST initiative, and that it recieved a lot of support from many major bodies in Israel, first and foremost the Technion, Israel's leading technological university.

Originally Posted by EricH

I've heard rumors over the last couple of years. Still hasn't happened.

I've also heard rumors about one down in Australia/NZ at various times. NZ fell through, at least at the FRC level, back when I was a student. Australia, I'm not sure where they're at in terms of official FRC competitions.

Back in the summer of 2011 (I think), I heard rumors of an Australian regional starting in 2014, but I guess if that was the case we would've known by now...