Quitting FRC for Vex?

[GreyingJay]

Hey, thanks for the shout-out.

Originally Posted by TDav540

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.

If it was possible to make FRC competitions cheaper, and increase the build season period from 6 weeks to something longer, it would lower the entry barrier for all those schools/groups who can't stomach the two largest factors about FRC - namely, how much it costs (and how much sponsorship/fundraising is needed) and how insanely busy it gets from January to April just to field a working robot.

(Our parent feedback from this year was essentially - "holy cow we didn't realize just how much Billy was going to be in for - it was worth it in the end but holy cow!")

I recognize it may not BE possible. It would definitely change the competition landscape. The calendar logistics aside, a longer build season would allow the rookies to actually get a robot done but then the 1114's and 254's of the world would have that much more time to build something amazing. It could lower the entry barrier but widen the competition gap, forcing the rookies to work that much harder anyway just to keep up.

In the end, I think there's definitely a place for both programs.