Is competing at multiple regionals REALLY fair ?

[dsmoker]

As a mentor for a team that attends only one regional and has only once in its 9 year existence competed in Atlanta, let me say the following:

1. Why are we so concerned with everything being "fair?" Life is not fair. FIRST is meant, at least in part, to help students succeed in life. Part of life is learning that everyone is not on an equal footing. Some teams will always have more resources than others. The challenge for teams with fewer resources, like ours, is to learn how to (a) increase those resources; and (b) work within the resources you have. It is possible to succeed without the biggest budget or most mentors. Not every team is the New York Yankees (who I love, btw).

2. I have nothing against teams who attend more than one regional each year. Ultimately, it is our goal, when finances permit. It's simply smart tactics to get as much drive time with your robot as possible. We are working toward that goal first by trying to get financially stable to attend two events at least every other season (either two regionals or a regional and the championship). That way each team member, in theory, has the opportunity to go to a second event twice in their high school career. This is especially difficult for us as an inner city team, as we cannot ask student's families to contribute financially. It simply isn't feasible. What we can and are now asking students to do, however, is to fundraise. They did this quite effectively last year, raising almost $3,000 in just a few weeks to help get us to Atlanta when we qualified.

3. I don't understand the whole thing about teams competing in multiple regionals taking up spots in Atlanta. As I understand it, any vetern team can register during the appropriate time period. There is then a wait list for situations where all the spots reserved for regional champions, EI winners, Chairman's winners and Rookie All Stars are not taken up, as would be the case when a team wins multipe regionals. So how is a multiple winner taking up space that someone else could occupy? Maybe someone can correct me on this point if I am mistaken.

Those are my three main points. Intersting thread.