Is competing at multiple regionals REALLY fair ?

[skippy178]

What is the feeling about teams who compete at their "home" regional and then go on to compete at other regionals (some nearby, and others far away) ?

FIRST espouses "gracious professionalism", yet as I listened to the Championship webcast, I was amazed at the number of top teams who had won multiple awards at several regionals leading to Atlanta.

Some rookie teams struggle just to field a robot, yet there are veteran teams who are well-resourced and with deep pockets, who are travelling the countryside and beating the local talent on their home turf. What does this really say about the FIRST competition system ?

Does this REALLY encourage new teams to come back again next year when the out-of-towners take all the prestigious awards, and deny the locals a chance to go to Atlanta ?

The more I think about this, the more I keep wishing for FIRST to take some proactive steps to limit teams to entering their "home" regional event (the closest within their region, or if two are equally close, then they must nominate one as the home event) to qualify for Atlanta, and if they enter other "away" regionals, then they can compete, but are not eligible for moving into the elimination rounds, and that goes to the local teams instead.

I'm interested to know what others think about this.

Cheers

J