Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I decided to look at this in terms of STEM so a quick google search of famous Scientists comes up with: Darwin, Hawking, Bohr, Pasteur, and Aristotle.
Technologists: Turing, Gates, Jobs, Zworykin and Lovelace
Engineers: Wright, Eiffel, Benz, Tesla, and Nobel
Mathematicians: Descartes, Euclid, Riemann, Gauss, and Euler

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

Supposing we have an 8 alliance Einstein next year, I wonder if FIRST will explore other options than a typical 8 alliance tournament. That format has between 14 and 21 matches, and this will likely be closer to 21 since these are division winning alliances. One alternative is the 8 teams are divided into 2 groups of 4, each alliance in a group plays the other 3, and the top alliance from each goes to the finals. This keeps the match count lower; there would be 14 or 15 matches.

Also, a note on VEX using a round robin, since they have 5 divisions, they really don't have a choice(besides not having 5 divisions). Any other system will give an advantage to some divisions.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

Noether

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

Yeah they don't have much of a choice, but I really don't think it's implemented well. At all. When teams IN the Round Robin don't know what's going on really. There was too much extra stuff.

That smaller group play if done right can be ok. You could also just make it single eliminations.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

Grace Hopper

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I think the answer is not increasing the size of the Championship event (For FRC at least) but adding another week to the season, and lengthening the playoffs.

There isn't a single city that will be able to accommodate the size of FIRST in 5 years. That's why I believe we should keep it the same size, and add a few play in events. You could split it East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, South, and divvy up international teams evenly.

I know there would be out cry that people won't be able to experience the Championship event, but look at how many people experience the super bowl? We're at a point where championships can't be as all inclusive "everybody come on in and gather round" as it used to be, you play to win, and if you don't make it, you watch it on TV and use it as drive for the next season.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I agree with your points about expansion, but I disagree about your point about the championships not being as inclusive. FIRST world champs is more than a competition, it's an inspiring event meant to change the world. If we send less teams to this inspiring event, how are we changing the world in a more positive way?

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I don't like splitting off rookies into their own division, at least forcing them to do so. Maybe rookies can optionally play in a weaker division, but treating them as second class robots *purely* based on age when tons of veteran teams can't play either is unfair.

I also think the rookie / bad team "problem" is going to fix itself as districts become the norm everywhere. The real problem is that there should be some number of Rookie All Stars at champs, but that number is probably less than one per regional. A similar argument could be made for second pick regional winners, but there are many that were essential to their alliance and made the Championship elims so this can't be a blanket change. As we go to Districts, fewer slots are given to RAS / EI and more spots are given to high performing robots. The only second pick which guarantees qualification is the district champion whom has always deserved to play at Champs. If everyone could switch to districts tomorrow, this problem would be barely noticeable.

Until then, I'm not sure there's a great solution. Perhaps RAS would enter your team into a draft where the top X rookie teams advance to Champs - based on the district point system applied to that event. Maybe some kind of "scoring check" to ensure your team has the basic ability to manipulate a game piece or otherwise positively contribute to an alliance. But none of these ideas sound all that great, honestly.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I may be biased since he grew up near my hometown, but I'd like to nominate Claude Shannon

All of the mathematics that go into modern communication was created by Shannon. This guy was brilliant. Everything about your cell phone, internet connection, digital TV, and virtually everything else in modern communications can be attributed to Claude Shannon - and the most amazing part is he did it all in 1948! Talk about being ahead of his time - it took around 40 years before most of his work could even be put to the test. He is a true "rock star" role model in that all current students could relate - especially given their propensity to use a cell phone.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I am very against the idea of seperating rookie teams away from everyone else at champs. 4451 last year was a power house and 5122 was a finalist at the NE champs and I'm sure there are boat loads more that I do not have the experience of knowing that show that rookie teams can compete with everyone else.

As for the field space, although it was rather miserable, FRC was able to fit two full fields and an exhibition field for CARD in 2011 in the pit area with everything else. With the four fields in the dome now and more space now that FTC and FLL are gone, it is totally possible for FIRST to impliment four more fields in the pit area, even though it might make things a little more crowded.

I also really like the idea of 75 teams per division with the four team alliance set up for eliminations. That allows another 200 teams to go to champs and another 128 teams a slot in eliminations. It also eases the insanity of scouting and allows for the same number of matches to be played in less time which can mean alliance selections on friday night and more elimination matches on saturday. Maybe moving Einstein to best of 5 or best of 7 and really forcing teams to show the endurance of their robot.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I'd like to put in my requests for additional FTC fields. As the current two are related to electricity ( the Kite/key and the light bulb) how about Tesla (MCs and announcers would have fun with Tesla vs Edison) and Volta ("I say Alessandro you say Volta!" :ahh: ).
Of course the FTC championship field would get the Da Vinci name!

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

My top four picks for new divisions in order

Schrodinger
Euclid
Pythagoras
Riemann

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

Surely we should have a field named Faraday given our robots wouldn't work so well without electric motors.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I would love to see a Rookie Division so that a rookie champion can be crowned each year :)

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

^^ I second this nomination. Grace Hopper is well-known in the field of Computer Science and one of my personal idols. A truly inspiring woman in STEM.