Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I support this.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

Grace Hopper has been on my short list of potential field names for a long time.

Clarke, McAuliffe, Asimov, Tsiolkovsky, Sagan, Teller...

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

Marconi.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

Does anyone else think Houston would be a good city to host Champs? I know it was done back in 2003 in the Astrodome and it was terrible, but now it would be a lot different. There is still the Reliant Center Convention Center but now it has the new and modern Reliant Stadium. Assuming that there is a connection between the two (I have no idea if any sort of tunnel exists), I think the two venues would have more than enough space. Reliant Arena is also right there and could be used as the FTC or FLL venue, keeping one of them very close to the FRC venue, although this might conflict with the NBA playoffs if the Rockets make it.

Also, Houston was Continental Airlines' main hub and is now a major hub for United Airlines after the merger, meaning flights wouldn't be a problem. As far as hotels and things to do in the city, I wouldn't know, but Houston being the big city that it is, I don't think that would be much of a problem.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

When the championship was in Houston, the fields were in Reliant Staduim (not the Astrodome). The pits were in the Astrodome. The biggest problem was to get from the pits to the field it required going up 4-5 floors of ramps and then back down again. It literally took about 20-25 minutes to get from the pits to the playing field (or back). If your match turnaround time was less than 60-90 minutes, it wasn't even worth going back to the pit.

Also, most hotels and restaurants were rather far away if I remember correctly.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I wish it would make sense as the 10 minute drive would me much nicer then than the 13 hour drive but sadly it wouldn't be good. In 2003 we were in Reliant Stadium, it was brand new. The pits were in the Astrodome which is probably going to be demolished in a few years, as the renovation plans were voted down. Any other space in the complex is way to far away for the pits. Downtown we have the George R. Brown Convention Center (home of the Lone Star Regional) and the Toyota Center (Where the Rockets play) but they aren't close enough for what we need to host championships.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

If FIRST went to 6 divisions of 80 teams they could grow to up to 6 divisions of 100 teams then look at further expansion. If you took the 6 divisions and broke them into 2 Finalist divisions of 3 alliances each then had a playoff where 2 teams move to Einstein for finals.

1 vs 2
1 vs 3
2 vs 3

Top team moves on and the final 2 teams play 1 game to move the winner on. Yes we would be adding a few more matches but it seems like a good solution.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I like the idea of 8 divisions with 60 teams each. This would mean FIRST would only have to invite 80 additional teams next season. IT also would keep the round robin even so surrogate matches would not need played by any teams.

This also just adds an additional round of matches on Einstein with the 8 winning alliances facing off in quarter finals.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

Im personally sad to see the FTC divisions leaving the same Staduim floor. :( . I loved being able to watch my FTC team compete along with watching the FRC fields. Its going to be interesting next year I guess. From all the pictures I can find of Union though, I have no clue as to where they are going to put the FTC fields.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

Thing about 6 divisions versus 8 is that you can probably squeeze in two more FRC fields in the dome if you take out the FTC spot and move around some of Einstein, but with 8 divisions you're likely going to be moving a number of fields out of the dome and that doesn't come off as ideal.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

This is true. If they could find a way to fit it I think it would be ideal. I like the idea of getting as many matches in as possible with smaller divisions during qualification matches. This year you only saw 50% of your division on the field, which does not lead to a very good ranking system.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I think you're on to something, if you just have your two Finalist division winners move on to a final 3 match series, it's 8-9 matches, which is essentially the same as past Einstein matches. This means Einstein takes roughly the same amount of time, and we could have the same or more quals matches per team.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I think 8 divisions is a good idea because smaller divisions mean a more balanced competition. But it doesn't mean there needs to be 8 fields. Each field could have two divisions alternating games. Maybe Curie-A & Curie-B share a field and have a playoff to see who goes to Einstein. Expansion could be implemented in increments of 6 per division, starting with 54 or 60. If there are 2 divisions of 54, with each team getting 10 matches, there would be 180 matches compared to 167 matches with the current set-up.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

FIRST could go old school and do Double Elimination Brackets like they used to back in the dark ages of FIRST.

Re: New Championship Layout 2015
 

I have an original copy of the elimination bracket from 1996 hanging on my wall if anyone wants to see how it used to be done.