Is competing at multiple regionals REALLY fair ?

[Dancin103]

I have a few thoughts on this. I have been pondering this one for a while now. When our teams first started we only had the money to attend one regional and build a robot. A few years into competing, we got enough money to build the robot and attend both a regional and nationals (championship). And now we have the sponsorship to attend to local events and nationals. (There have been a few years, like this one, where we have attended 3 regionals and championships.) It's all about getting the sponsorship and the funding, and teams should not be limited, if they have the funds, well them let them compete at multiple regionals.

It is in my opinion that if a team has enough money to attend more than one regional and championship then let them. As well I think if a team wants to compete at a different regional out side of their "region" then let them. For some teams, their "home" regional is not within an hour or so of where they are from. Like us, a team from PA, our "home" regional is Jersey, and will always be Jersey. It was the first regional we ever attended and it will always be our home. (Thanks Jersey for making it our home, we love playing with you guys!) Also, for a team like Miss Daisy (correct me if I’m wrong here), they always attend the Chesapeake regional in addition to the Philly regional. Now, Chesapeake is about 3 hours from them and yet I’m sure they feel at home when they go there cause they have been competing their for a while now.

Allowing teams to compete at different regionals every year is all apart of the fun. It opens up a new realm of opportunities and allows teams to compete with teams they may not have competed with before.

Well, that’s my 2 cents and what I think about competing out side of your "home" and "region" and competing at multiple regionals.

P.S. I previously mentioned getting sponsorship and funding to "play the game" in FIRST, so if any teams reading this need help attaining the sponsorship, please drop me a note and we (my team and I) can help you out in that department. FIRST is all about partnership and helping others, and so if you are a team that needs help, please contact us, we would be more than willing to help.

Cass