Why do teams voluntarily do FIRST without adult technical mentors?

[Ryan Foley]

Originally Posted by Ryan F.

I'll bite.

Here’s the big problem. How are high schoolers supposed to compete against professionally designed and built robots? This is where the true conflict is. The teams who believe that FIRST is better when the students actually build and manage the robot get destroyed in competition. FIRST is not supposed to be a professional engineering competition. If the engineering mentors want that, there are other avenues. FIRST is meant to Inspire the STUDENTS. The more we allow for these professionally designed and built robots to dominate the FIRST competitions, the more it encourages student run teams to start letting the engineers design and build the robots. FIRST will start to discourage many teams from participating when they realize that the robot they spent six weeks on has no chance of success at the competition.

Actually, I have seen all-student built teams win. Team 939 won at their regional (Sirbleedsalot who posted earlier in this thread is from that team), and my former team, 350, won the BAE regional with 121 and 126.

Sure, sometimes the student-built teams may not have the same resources that they would if they had engineers, and perhaps sometimes the bots are of the same caliber as others, but it doesnt mean they cant win. Keep in mind that strategy and alliances are a vital part of the game, especially this year. It's not just about who has a better bot.