Quitting FRC for Vex?

[TDav540]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

Sure they did; back when all of the parts were Vex, it was a pretty great kit!

The Vex robotics competition is amazing for how little it costs to compete. Whenever someone asks how to get their kids involved in robotics at a school with no team, Vex is usually my first suggestion.

There are lots of other robotics competitions out there as well that are just as fun as FIRST, but not as large of a budget drain. FRC is expensive.

Looking at a lot of these posts, there seem to be four reasons teams leave FIRST and/or join VEX:

1. FTC's kit isn't very good
2. FTC's (and FRC's) curriculum for teachers is nonexistent
3. FRC is too resource-intensive (space, time, money, etc.), and
4. The team(s) doesn't have enough student participation, teacher/mentor support to do FRC, and the VEX platform is easier to manage

I also wouldn't be surprised if current FRC teams are leaving for VEX because the switch to 2Champs conflicts with VEX worlds, though this a (generally) much smaller factor.

How do we continue to grow the FIRST program? I think FIRST organizers and the community need to realize large changes and additions are needed to the FTC to make it comparable to VEX. They need the curriculum, they need a better kit, they need to be better organized, and, most importantly, they need an identity in the FIRST landscape. To do this, more money, emphasis, thought, and time needs to be invested in that program from a development level.

FIRST could easily ignore that problem and simply keep the program as it is. That would be a significant oversight and a travesty, but it's the easiest path. Partnering with VEX, rather than trying to compete with it, would also be a good idea, if at all possible.

In terms of FRC, the problems are less massive but still crucial. The program needs to become cheaper. I'll be honest, I'm not sure how you do that, other than just getting more sponsorship or lowering the flashiness of the events (not an issue IMO), but they need to find a way to change the $5k number to $4k, $3k, or lower. Otherwise, the cost will continue to push teams out the door rather than welcome them in.

Additionally, FRC needs to take the same approach VEX does with teachers: combine it with a curriculum that can be taught in the classroom. There are ways to do this, and it needs to happen soon.

It would also be a good idea for FIRST to support/start AndyMark/VEX-type operations or shipping warehouses in Europe and Asia, to help improve the costs and operations for international teams. The increased expenses for international teams is hindering that growth heavily.

Overall, I think Greying Jay said it well:

Originally Posted by GreyingJay

The programs give different experiences to the students. I heard someone once say that "FRC is not about robotics. FRC is a life experience that involves robotics". And when I look back on what FRC is doing for the students I work with, I think that "learning to build/program robots" is actually pretty low on the list. Our students are learning more about how to outreach and connect with the community, how to work on teams, how to work on imbalanced teams, how to work under pressure, how to communicate an idea, how to manage their time, how large projects are structured and how each person fits into that. It's much more like how the real world operates.

But VEX still has enough other benefits that it's changing the robotics landscape, much more than FIRST. Slowly, but more quickly by the day, FRC is losing it's place as the pinnacle of high school robotics to VEX. If we and the people who lead FIRST want FRC to stay at the highest level, then we have to make some critical changes.