Is competing at multiple regionals REALLY fair ?

[Josh Fox]

*****Off Topic Section*****

Nothing in life is free. The team that has a full machine shop and every luxury that money can afford had to work to get that money, while the team with next to nothing but a hard working group of people have to work to in different ways to get the same results. Both groups have put in different kinds of work, and it's not really something that is on a measurable scale. It's like comparing apples to oranges, it just doesn't work.

Let's face it, in the real world, some people truly do have advantages, but that doesn't mean that hard work can't prevail. For example, I've had classmates who can ace everything without any effort, while others have to work incredibly hard to get the same results.



*****My attempt at an on topic comment*****
Though I am strongly for competing at multiple regionals, mostly because they are tons of fun, I can see the other side of this debate, and as a driver I can see where it would give the teams that do compete at multiple regionals an advantage over those who don't/can't.

In my experience, no matter how many hours of drive practice you put in, there's no real substitute for actually competing. This is the best way I can put this to have it make sense (maybe). Let's say two teams (A and B) have completely identical robots, drivers, skills, etc. If Team A and Team B put in exactly the same amount of practice prior to a competition, but Team A has already competed at one regional, I would give them an advantage if Teams A and B were to compete. That said, I'm eliminating all the variables here like strategy and such, but I think people need to accept that there are two valid sides to this debate, and neither of them is the absolutely correct one.

Hopefully this has made enough sense for people to be able to interpret it as a semi-intelligent comment.