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The Honda one looked way better, and this one needed better music. But seriously, if you like this sort of thing, get together with a local school and ask about coaching an Odyssey of the Mind team. This program is great fun for everyone involved, and God knows that kids today need some recreation that doesn't involve headshots.

I wonder if it's anything like Odyssey of the Mind

Did you go out looking for sponsors? Did you learn anything from the engineers that helped you? Did you have any engineers helping you? How much building did YOU actually do?

FIRST isn't about students building a robot. If you want to do that, go build one for Robot Wars or BattleBots. If you don't want to build a robot, look into the Odyssey of the Mind competition.

FIRST is about marketing your team to get sponsorship. It's about getting community involvement in order to find engineers to help you and for people to help with logistics (shipping, travel, cheering section, etc). It's about LEARNING from those engineers. The robots just give you something technical to do to reach a goal: the competition. And there is supposed to be a website to get news out to the community, and there is an animated video you are to submit as part of the competition. It's not just a robot. Note that Odyssey of the mind is about a lot of the same stuff, too.

I have been a volunteer for both the Odyssey of the Mind and FIRST robotics competitions (Northern VA and Chesapeake Regional, respectively). I WISH I had the opportunity these students have when I was in school. I had LEGO's, Erector sets (no, not erection sets!), etc. and I had to build things on my own to learn the mechanics. The engineers involved on the FIRST teams are industry professionals. It would have been a great head start if I had learned the way things really are from a professional before I went to college.

If you didn't get professionals to help you, and you didn't get sponsors to give you free space to build your robot, or sponsors to donate time in a machine shop for your team, then you either didn't try hard enough, or you and your teacher/mentor didn't understand the game.

I'm thinking the event will be named something else by the time it becomes the 2nd Annual, since the US Olympic Committee has told them they can't use Olympics in their name.

When I was in high school, we saw the name of the Olympics of the Mind program changed to "Odyssey of the Mind" for the same reason.

Magic the Gathering, on the other hand, is deplored by some fundamentalist christians for the pictures it uses, known perhaps more for its business side than its academic side, and continually changing the dynamic of the game.

Don't get me wrong, it's already harder for an intellectual athlete to get funding to go to international meets for the more traditional academic competitions, and a local basketball trophy will usually be more proudly displayed than an international medal even for the better accepted intelectual athletics. I just think MtG is likely to generate even less respect.

Olympics/Odyssey of the Mind? You GEEK! Neener, neener! (Oops, know I have to explain how I know about it...)

Not everything has to be about robots!
When I was in Elementary and Middle Schools I was in a program called Odyssey of the Mind. This was a great program, with teams of 7 students, who would comptete in both a long and short program. For the long program (8 minutes), the team had a few months and a limited budget, and was allowed to choose one of the 5 problems to solve, Here are Last Years. There was alao a short program, where you were given a set of supplies, 1 min to brainstorm, and then 3 minutes to do it. Usually this challenge took the form of building something, such as the tallest twoer you could with toothpicks and shaving cream, that could survive a 5mph wind, something like that. It was a great program, and wasn't limited to engneering tyes.
There a programs like both OM and US FIRST, or the new robot wars in a lot of communitites, and whether you like their current format or not, we should all get involved. Many of us complain about the current state of education, and I have already seen people complaining about schools, and thanking vouchers. If you think these programs are great, get involved! If not get involved anyway and bring your experiences and incites to a younger group.
-OctaneZ

Not everything has to be about robots!
When I was in Elementary and Middle Schools I was in a program called Odyssey of the Mind. This was a great program, with teams of 7 students, who would comptete in both a long and short program. For the long program (8 minutes), the team had a few months and a limited budget, and was allowed to choose one of the 5 problems to solve, Here are Last Years. There was alao a short program, where you were given a set of supplies, 1 min to brainstorm, and then 3 minutes to do it. Usually this challenge took the form of building something, such as the tallest twoer you could with toothpicks and shaving cream, that could survive a 5mph wind, something like that. It was a great program, and wasn't limited to engneering tyes.
There a programs like both OM and US FIRST, or the new robot wars in a lot of communitites, and whether you like their current format or not, we should all get involved. Many of us complain about the current state of education, and I have already seen people complaining about schools, and thanking vouchers. If you think these programs are great, get involved! If not get involved anyway and bring your experiences and incites to a younger group.
-OctaneZ

As a side note, the two major cps programs out there are Destination Imagination and Odyssey of the Mind The programs are pretty similar. Take a team of 7 or less kids or college students, give them an open ended problem to solve, and have the present the solution on a Saturday competition. The presentations generally include technical portions, as well as a skit, about 10 minutes in length, along with scenery and the like. The competition also include an on the spot portion, where you're given a problem to do in about 10 minutes from beginning to end. Again, creativity is highly stressed. Not exactly geek culture, but I strongly encourage people to go check out either program and volunteer to help out as a judge or something.