IFI vs FTC? Both offering competitions for next year!

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by basicxman

if they have a competiton next year in ontario ill do both because ive got 1K worth of vex sitting in my room and registration is free

but im sticking with FTC and the new platform for now

Just curious to why you, or anyone, would make a decision either way before we even know the full details of the new platform and Vex's competing competitions.

The way I see it is we have a known with Vex's hardware, and (for most of us) and unknown with their competition.
We have an unknown with FTC's hardware, but a known with their competition.
I won't weight the two against eachother, or directly compare at the moment, but I think if either side tries to pretend they are what they aren't it won't end pretty. Let's not start a Holy War and contend against eachother. Say what your platform can and can't do, don't try and say "we're better because of X,Y,Z." It won't end well.

[Beth Sweet]

Well, I'm glad to see a new opportunity. I know in MI, even if we want to, we can't do Tech, so the opportunity to do IFI may be a way to get more area schools involved in science/tech type things!

[talltree357]

Right now I am reserving my judgment until I see what the new cost and final format of FTC is for next year. I admit, I really enjoy having and designing with my Vex system right now and don't have a budget to invest in a second set up. I think many of us are sitting in the period of let's wait until the grand unveiling and see, is the cost worth it compared to staying with IFI and Vex. I just hope we find out the cost soon so I can make a decision and work on a budget for next year.

[ManicMechanic]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Just curious to why you, or anyone, would make a decision either way before we even know the full details of the new platform and Vex's competing competitions.

If our team were just graduating out of FLL, it would be a tough call, but the fact that we have $1K+ of Vex equipment biases us heavily in the Vex direction. That initial kit was hard to come by -- one kid basically gave up a robotics camp opportunity and diverted the funds into Vex equipment for the school.

On an annual budget of about $500, having a low registration fee is a big plus for us, and expanding our team of 7 students (and growing) into 2 teams actually looks practical for next year (much needed, as 70 fingers tend to get in each others' way ) Money isn't the only consideration, but it's an important one for a low-budget team, and Vex has the potential to deliver a reasonable experience for considerably less.

Beyond IFI's "official" events, the lower cost also will allow us to increase exposure to robotics in our area: 2 other local Vex teams plan to expand in the same way as ours, and we are looking to form 10 teams from the 3 and hold local events. Being able to hold low-cost events locally, we're more likely to snag neighborhood spectators and pick up even more teams.

We wish FTC well and hope that it gets quality teams to continue doing what it does best. Who knows, if we get more money and the students are itching for a change, we may be back.

[Daviddavid]

[quote=Lil' Lavery;722818]The way I see it is we have a known with Vex's hardware, and (for most of us) and unknown with their competition.
We have an unknown with FTC's hardware, but a known with their competition.
I QUOTE]

Two different people I talked to today about all this at the Davis event said to me that it's cool they don't have to worry about Vex being able to run great events. I said I it's one thing to expect a good program but there's really no way to know until we see how the World event in May goes. But they said - you don't know the people at IFI, they got people who have been running these events for years and they know how to do it as good or better than anyone. So at least for them, they feel totally confident that the new Vex program has a great platform and will have a great program with good competitions.
I'm assuming this is true, at least I hope it is, and it does sound like another reason to be excited or hopeful about the new Vex competitions. I kind of thought it might take them a year or two to learn how to run events like I was at today, but it sounds like they already have lots of experience doing it. I thought that was interesting, but maybe I'm reading to much into it.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Daviddavid

Two different people I talked to today about all this at the Davis event said to me that it's cool they don't have to worry about Vex being able to run great events. I said I it's one thing to expect a good program but there's really no way to know until we see how the World event in May goes. But they said - you don't know the people at IFI, they got people who have been running these events for years and they know how to do it as good or better than anyone. So at least for them, they feel totally confident that the new Vex program has a great platform and will have a great program with good competitions.
I'm assuming this is true, at least I hope it is, and it does sound like another reason to be excited or hopeful about the new Vex competitions. I kind of thought it might take them a year or two to learn how to run events like I was at today, but it sounds like they already have lots of experience doing it. I thought that was interesting, but maybe I'm reading to much into it.

By no means am I saying IFI will do a poor job running events. In fact, I'd tend to lean towards the side that they would do an awesome job. They do have two people with FRC GDC experience within their ranks (Tony Norman and Jason Morella), and a number of others with experience in running competitions, teams, and other events. But the bottom line is that we haven't really seen their event(s) yet, and we don't know how the whole system will be set up next year. Until we see some more information, I'm still chucking that up there as a question mark, although I'm very hopeful and confident that it will turn out well.