Should teams be allowed to attend multiple regionals?

[Allison K]

Originally Posted by AJunx

The question then, redefined, is this:
Do YOU believe that the $5,000 dollars (which is, I might add, a very low estimate) spent by Redateam to send their drive team and 7 engineers to an additional regional could be better spent in the interests of achieving the goals of FIRST (to inspire in young people an interest in engineering and science)?
In other words, do you believe that the money used to fund the "drive-team method," as described above, could not be used differently so as to inspire more people to become involved with science and engineering?

There may be a few teams that use the so called "drive team method." I personally have not witnessed any. Ever. All I have ever seen from a FIRST team at a regional competition is passion and enthusiasm in all of the members. I have seen small teams, and from what I have seen they are just as inspired as the students on large teams, so doesn't that make the money worth it?

I will assume however that since you brought up this "drive team method" that you have somewhere witnessed a team using it. If that is the case, is it really worth taking away from the experience of students on all of the other teams by limiting all teams to one regional. It is my opinion that FIRST is not about lowering the bar to those with the smallest expectations, but helping helping all teams exceed the standards set by the best.

Originally Posted by Ajunx

"If teams should be allowed to do whatever they please with their money, should FIRST eliminate all restrictions on how teams spend their money?
If FIRST were to take this route, changes might include:
• Eliminating the $3500 limit on parts used for robots.
• Eliminating the 25-pound limit on fabricated spare/replacement/upgrade parts that you can bring to each regional event (since these parts do not count towards the $3500 limit).
• Eliminating the 120-pound weight limit for robots.
• Lengthening the 6-week build season.

FIRST already has restrictions on how teams can spend their money.
The reason for these restrictions, in my opinion, is twofold. The first is obviously to keep the playing field reasonably level. No one wants there to be teams that win simply by outspending other teams (this isn’t Major League Baseball )
The second reason is that FIRST doesn’t want teams spending every penny they have solely on the robotics competition.

If FIRST did want teams to spend all of their funding on the robotics competition, then why is there a 120-pound weight limit for robots? Why is the build season only 6 weeks long? Why can’t teams build $15,000 robots to compete? (note, a $15,000 robot could be pretty darn inspiring)"

If I were to guess, I would say that the $3,500 limit was put in place not to control the use of a team's funds, but to enhance the engineering experience. It would be a lot esier to build a competitive robot with $15,000. And that $15,000 robot may well be inspiring. But the $3,500 creates a much more realistic engineering experience with taking away any of it's inspiring qualities.

The six week build phase is similar to the monetary limit. I'm sure teams could build an amazing robot if they had an entire year (and $15,000) to build it in. But the six week build phase more realistically imitates a real world eningeering experience without comprismising the inspiration factor.

The 120 lb weight limit is another case of this. The real world has limits. There are deadlines and there are small budgets and there are project limitations. I think it's great that FIRST is able to achieve the number one goal of inspiration and still create such a wonderfully realistic engineering challenge.

FIRST rules are not about being negative and taking away to level the playing field. They are about creating a unique design challenge while still being an extremely positive experience. Limiting a team to one regional would take away from the experience without significant benefits.

~Allison