Qualifying for Nationals

[Halon]

I don't want to sound rude or anything, but I think FIRST has sort of spoiled us by letting everyone attend nationals in the past. I mean, right now, qualifying for nationals is a *big* deal. If you don't qualify, you don't go (only for even teams this year). Oh, and every team DOES have a chance to go to nationals. It's just that now it's a little harder than signing a check and putting a sticker on your crate. This is only my second year in FIRST, but I have been doing other robotics competitions for a while. And I've participated in many sports competitions, science fair, science olympiad, and other stuff like that, too. One of the main things in my mind that keeps FIRST from becoming a sport is that they have allowed everyone to go to nats in the past. Name a sport (or almost any other competition) that does this. Right. There isn't one. That's because every sport has some sort of qualifying factor where only the best teams go. I think that this is how FIRST should be. They've been letting everyone go to nationals for a long time, and teams take this for granted and just assume that they'll get to go again next year. See, things are valued for their rarity. And now, since teams are so used to just going to nats, they are appalled by the fact that they can't just sign up anymore. This makes winning awards that qualify you for nationals a much bigger deal, and teams can take more pride in saying they went to nationals. I hope in a few years that everybody has to qualify for nationals. This whole 'everybody can go to nationals' thing is only taking place here in FIRST, and I think it is giving many people the impression that achieving things like competing at a national level is easy. But it's not, and once you step away from FIRST, everything will be different and you'll be wondering why.

Just my $0.02.