Ideas to move in the direction of making FIRST competitions 'fair'

[paldrid]

It took me a while to be able to admire and respect some of the powerhouse teams. I was upset that my team was always at such a disadvantage, with around 10 -15 students and no money. However, every year I was proud that we were able to come up with something at all, given all the challenges the team faced. Last year particularly, things kind of fell apart in the middle of build. I was expecting the team to produce one of our most competitive robots yet, instead, we couldn't drive in a straight line. I was still proud that we were able to produce a robot at all. More importantly, I feel that I learned more last year than any previous year because of the challenges we faced. Even if our robots have a habit of not turning out, is always rewarding to go to competition and see another teams robot, that is nearly identical to our original design, go out and win.

A big part of FIRST is the fact that it isn't fair. Our team worked harder because we knew what we would be up against. Every year we are forced to be more innovative, to learn more, to stay at school until midnight every day for six weeks, just to build something remotely passable. The whole point of FIRST is that it isn't really about winning. Yes, it is really frustrating to not do well in the placings, or not win an award to qualify for nationals, but I after I got home, this always motivated me to work harder.

I do agree that more could be done to help smaller, underfunded (as well as rookie) teams feel less overwhelmed. However, it seems like FIRST is already taking steps to make that happen by doing things like improving the kit drive train.