Championship 2014 Proposal
 

Another thread got me thinking about how we could improve the championship event, and below is what I would propose when we next change venues:

The Championship has pretty much expanded beyond the point where it comfortably fits in one dome, we would be better served in a convention center style venue (The Los Angeles Convention Center and the The Staples Center or something similar) This would be the schedule:

Wednesday - Practice matches and the first qualification matches in 8 divisions 60 team divisions, in the exhibition halls.
Thursday - More Qualification Matches
Friday - Qualification Matches, Alliance Selections, Division Elimination Matches and Awards.
Saturday - Now we get to the fun part. At this point, we move everyone into the Staples Centre for the "Einstein" Division. All the teams from each winning alliance and the captains of each finalist alliance are part of this 32 team division. They play a handful of round-robin style matches in this divisions. Each team's QS is the sum of the points earned in the round robin with 1 additional QS point for each win that they achieved in their divisions (this helps sort the rankings and also handicaps the finalist team). Then Alliance selections and Eliminations for the World Championship :).

There are a number of reasons that I believe this would be a superior system:

• We now include an incredible 480 teams at worlds.
• Everyone gets more qualification matches
• We end with the absolute best talent in the world winning. (No more getting stuck in the wrong division).
• Saturday provides an awesome show that is watchable to a wide audience. Because the level of play is incredible and the number of teams is reasonable to follow.

Hopefully this inspires some interesting discussion,

- Alex

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

I think there are a lot of great ideas here. I'm not sure how many of our students or mentors could take an entire week off a school or work to attend, though. Most of us are already feeling the effects of taking three days off for this years championship.

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

Personally all I want is FIRST to adopt the Battlecry model and have 16 alliances battling all Saturday long (with full individual awards ceremonies afterwards for each division) til the survivors settle it on Einstein in the early evening.

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

Since this seems to concern a number of people, I have condensed it to three days.

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

The Astrodome has been closed for a few years, so it's really just one stadium now.

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

The 2003 FIRST Championship was held in Reliant Park. I don't think many miss the walk to the field.

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

I definitely think your on the right track. Even if we just increased the number of division to 8 with 70 teams each and continued with the same format each team would get more matches, approximately 12 compared to the 10 now. Einstein would then become an 8 team tournament to decide the champion.

To facilitate the expansion of Championship from ~360 to 560 teams the current World Championship would have to just become the FRC World Championship with FLL and FTC either moving to earlier in the week or more likely to their own event earlier in the year.

We should still be able to host it at the EJD in St. Louis

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

I was glad someone else said it! Championships in this place was a mess and that's all I'm going to say.

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

Perhaps a convention center would be a better fit. (I have changed the original proposal to use the LA Convention Center, and the Staples Center for finals.)

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

The reasons the most recent set of Championships have been where they were is because they are, relatively, centrally located for all teams. If Championships were in LA, then >70% of teams would incur costs of flights that are astronomical. Finding the best location for any type of Championship for this program is difficult.

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

McCormick Convention Center followed by United Center (Madhouse on Madison) in Chicago. Has an international airport (O'Hare) and is centrally located in the US.

-Nick

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Largest convention center in the world and you cant beat what Orlando has to offer for high schoolers.

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

United Center is nowhere near McCormick.

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

If you really want to expand the number of teams you can have, hold it at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington Texas.

I dare you to find a bigger venue.

Re: Championship 2014 Proposal
 

Since I live in Canada I have had to pay for the flights to all 4 championships I have/will attend, so I hadn't really thought about this. The point of using the LA Convention Center is to prove that facilities exist that would fit the proposal, its not central to the changes that would be made to the championship event.

- Alex