Originally Posted by Citrus Dad (Post 1479726)

What if FIRST gave a party and no one came?

What if the top tier teams looked at the split championships and the possibility that they might have to fundraise for yet another event after that to crown a single champion? Might they consider skipping those those championships entirely? The IRI already exists to bring together top tier teams. Might the most competitive teams simply decide to avoid Detroit and Houston and just go straight to Indiana (or some other new event)?

I'm not sure that FIRST is considering this possibility sufficiently. Top tier teams aren't only the most competitive--they usually are also the most organized and networked. Organizing a separate championship event won't be that difficult. Look at the success of the Chezy Champs as one example of staging a significant well run event on a low budget, where all of the teams left happy.

And if those teams didn't attend, how would the other teams feel about going the the dual champs now? They wouldn't be able to rub shoulders with the best teams or see top level competition. And how would they feel about winning a further diluted championship?

FIRST needs to think about this more dynamically. It's not a static situation with no other avenues available.

Originally Posted by grstex (Post 1480011)

Can we call the Detroit and Houston winners the "official champions" and the winners of this other event the "shadow champions," and instead of medals they get black hooded cloaks? Because that would be awesome and I would support it 100%! ;)

Seriously though, what would this solve? If I'm a sponsor for a team that qualified to go to the "Official" Championships, pitch to me why I should pay to send a team to an "unofficial championship" instead. What are the benefits of one over the other?