Re: Future First Championship News
 

Can we say money grab? Its like the NFL expanding playoffs...lets have over half the teams make it and make more money.
Its sickening. People in FRC should respond to this complete farce.

Re: Future First Championship News
 

From a, 'response to the growth of FIRST programs' this change makes sense.

But from the FRC perspective, it makes absolutely no sense.

But it's such a tricky issue with the areas that have absolutely no easy way to switch to districts in the time being.

We'll see how this plays out, but I'd assume everything's already set and booked...not the best way to go about this...FIRST should have proposed the idea of splitting Championship geographically (ie. when they announced expanded 2015 champs or continued STL champs), wait for the reaction, then proceed from there. If they announced the venues, then clearly they're at a phase where legally, this can't be changed.

Unless they (and please, please, please let this be the end solution) split championship by program. Don't make FRC (FIRST's premier program) suffer it's own growth due to other FIRST programs growing.

I don't view the awards change as 'giving every team a championship', but I'm not a fan of the huge amount of awards that will be given out, ie. two CCAs.

Also, as much as we're negative about it here on the FRC-side, I'm curious to see what FTC/FLL people think about it, because their opinions do matter; it's a FIRST-focused change

Re: Future First Championship News
 

FIRST Championship 2020 Motto: You get a championship, you get a championship, you get a championship!

Maybe FIRST is trying to slowly announce Oprah is taking over for Dean.

Re: Future First Championship News
 

Wow... what a terrible plan. Why not just go the FTC route with super regional then champs? Also while I get the point of Detroit with all of the teams in MI and Quebec, but Houston? Really? Not a west coast city like LA or SD or Seattle?

Edit "Constructive Feedback":

Why not have 3 super regionals at Detroit, LA and Orlando with ~240 teams each. Then using district like point system send ~120 teams to a real world champs in Houston.

Re: Future First Championship News
 

I wasn't at Champs last year, but I was in 2011 -- and i do remember it being very crowded. And this year, there are even more teams. I think that making a change is good. That said, I'm not sure this is the right way to do it.

The district system is great because it allows you to go to "regionals," and then a (district) championship. I like this system because it gives teams an opportunity to compete multiple times, and then attend a championship event, which could qualify them for the FRC World Championship.

What I don't like about this new layout, is that FIRST is now moving into an even more district-like system, but without the championship part. We now have the winners of district championships (and regionals) competing at two "Super Regionals" that have no ending championship. You instead end up with a set of winners from different sides of the globe, and don't know if 1114 or 254 (just an example) really is better than the other in a given year.

What FIRST should do, if they plan to follow through with this new format, is move these regional championships slightly sooner, and have a true world championship event afterward, even if it means fewer teams. I know I, and my team, are inspired by seeing the greatest robots each year competing, even if it is from home. The world champs could be smaller, but with all the presentation sessions streamed online. I feel that FIRST could embrace technology and really make the championships even better for all teams. Just because your team isn't competing at champs doesn't mean you can't learn a lot from watching it all -- and we're at a point today where we can use technology to bring all the action back home to teams very easily.

(Sorry this got so long...)

Re: Future First Championship News
 

If you can explain how hosting two events with more teams will make more money, I'm interested.

Re: Future First Championship News
 

I umm...I just...I don't get it...

Re: Future First Championship News
 

$5000 a pop x 2 + the hotel kickbacks...completely a money grab. Still puts coast teams one high expense status. One of the so-called championship events is going to be the ugly step-child but yet the fees are the same..where do international teams go? The best one.

Re: Future First Championship News
 

I'm really surprised the FIRST apologists aren't out in force on this one.

Or are even they disillusioned by this?

Re: Future First Championship News
 

Pretty simple... I'm sure FIRST profited from Champs last year, at 400 teams. Run a second version of Champs and you're profiting a second time.

Re: Future First Championship News
 

Some things to think about.

1. An event can get too big for any one city to support, hotel-wise.

2. Recruiting enough volunteers for our style of event in one city can be an issue. I know I've been hit up several times to sign up to volunteer at champs.

3. Having >1 champs is consistent with FIRST's mission around reach

4. This could be a first step toward a multi-tier playoff model leading back to a single championship in the future.

5. There's nothing about this that can't be changed back to a single event in 2021. At that point, though, you'll have teams used to 1000ish slots for Champs and complaints that it reduces access.

6. Having 2 events does increase the number of teams within driving distance, particularly the DET event. The west coast would not be a logical second location, if you are using driving distance as your metric. If the model is successful, I'd expect a championship in California to follow. Houston is a curious choice for the second location if you use transportation costs as a metric; I'm wondering whether there were facility availability reasons for that, as 2017 not very far away in the world of venue scheduling.

7. I could see 1,000 spots for champs in 2017 (600 in STL and 400 in DET)

8. I'm glad that they're willing to try something new, even if in the end it turns out to be less successful than expected.

Re: Future First Championship News
 

This change benefits FLL and FTC more than FRC. In my opinion, this will be a good change because it will allow for more FLL and FTC teams to attend. The number of FRC teams able to attend FIRST Championships is outrageous compared to the number of FLL and FTC teams combined.

Re: Future First Championship News
 

They may be at events since you know, they made this announcement on day 1 of three of the five biggest non-CMP events on the FRC Calendar.

Re: Future First Championship News
 

I was waiting for a late April Fools...

This is just not right.

Re: Future First Championship News
 

Can you cite a source for your "hotel kickbacks" statement in regard to the FIRST Champs? I'm curious who is receiving the kickbacks and how much.