2004 Championship Qualification?

[ChrisH]

Originally posted by generalbrando
At the national event everyone buys into a sense of community a lot more and the true meaning of FIRST shines. If we can't have everyone going to the national event every year (which I understand is impossible), then I think we at least need to send a good number of rookie/second year teams out there so they can bring back the true spirit of FIRST to these rookie hot beds like St. Louis.

I think a better and more feasible idea is to ensure that new regionals are well "salted" with experienced teams. Especially those who have demonstrated the "FIRST spirit". I think that is one of the few advantages that we had in the early years of the LA regional. While we had many rookie teams, we also had many multi-year veterans who had a history of helping other teams. These veterans set the tone of the competition from Kickoff on.

Our rookies came knowing that not only would they recieve whatever help they needed that was available, but that they would also be expected to help other teams as they were able.