I agree with the sentiment of everyone has their first tournament. The schedule is completely random. Part of VEX is having a bot that can compete with anyone, no matter the situation.
I am not an EP, but I do question the 6 qual matches. Why not have 8 in a local tournament? It gives teams more opportunities to be matched up with some really cool robots. Also it gives teams a little more leway if they do have a bad match. But in my opinion kids will learn more if you give them more opportunities to learn.
My sons teams have had pairings with bots that had broke on the way to competition and were hero bots that the students didn’t know how to fix. So they offered advice and even troubleshooted with them. These are great learning opportunities. These teams had even started looking up to them and cheering them on in matches. So I agree with @VexParent2020 it is very rewarding to see the kids get excited about the performance of the match with them.
I told my son after his State Championship that is what I am most proud of him and his team for this season. They didn’t just win some tournaments and judged awards. But they became something more than just that team that won some things. They became the team that others looked up to. They may of not won excellence at all the events, but they showed what true exellence is. A program that others aspire to be.
I hope this helps ease some frustration. Because it truly is the best program the school offers in my opinion. To see the growth in these kids is pretty awesome! They are 5th-8th graders and learn so much more than just the technical aspect. They get experience interviewing infront of leaders. They basically write a resume which is called an engineering notebook and see if they can land the “job”. No other program offers that.