Re: pic: FIRST USA MAP
 

I also remember hearing this. I think it's called the Rocket City Regional. Should be in Huntsville for the coming year.

Re: pic: FIRST USA MAP
 

The map provides an interesting perspective. I edited the map a little, giving it a more logical color scheme and updating Alabama to reflect the Rocket City Regional. Thank you, Microsoft Paint, for making this possible.

Re: pic: FIRST USA MAP
 

Ah ha! I can discriminate the color difference now that I see the map on my computer instead of my phone, and actually read the legend carefully ;)

Re: pic: FIRST USA MAP
 

I'd like PNW to find a way to get Idaho as a whole included. Driving distance and hotels costs are an issue. But missed school days are another factor as well. Slightly smaller district events with Friday Load-in and long Saturday / Short Sunday might be a better balance. Seems like the Tri-Cities might be an option as well, reasonable drive for most East of the Cascade Teams, and plenty of Hotel options.

Re: pic: FIRST USA MAP
 

I'm not sure how teams like the big districts but the small district in Indiana was great because no team ever had to travel real far. We stayed overnight at 2 of 3 event but, there were some teams that traveled greater distances and didn't stay overnight. In the small district like Indiana's, it creates an even lower cost for teams. Plus, every team pretty much knew each other after each event due to only 49 teams in Indiana. I'm not sure how teams like the big districts like NE District but the IN District is great.

Re: pic: FIRST USA MAP
 

Actually Alaska needs to go to a blue state because team #568 will be part of the PNW District for the 2016 season! Yeah!! Idaho needs to go pink becuase they are planning to have a regional in Bosie in 2016.

See above. Great for the S. ID teams but because of fears that it won't have enough attendees N. ID teams are not going to be able to be part of the PNW district.

Well it means that they will still have some serious travel but the team in AK will be participating in the PNW district! The travel will be shorter and the plan, which still needs the details worked out, is for their robot to stay in WA between their events and DCMP and CMP if they qualify to advance to those levels.

Re: pic: FIRST USA MAP
 

Is there only 1 alaskan team? Just Curious

Re: pic: FIRST USA MAP
 

Yes for the 2015 season there was only one FRC team in Alaska. I think there were more in the past, and maybe being a part of the PNW district will encourage future growth.

Re: pic: FIRST USA MAP
 

So would any future teams in Alaska have to join the PNW district? Doesn't that seem like a completely terrible idea? What schools would want to pay the costs for two trips to Washington/Oregon in a new program?

It is more than a three hour flight from Anchorage to Seattle!

Re: pic: FIRST USA MAP
 

I do not know for certain. FIRST certainly prefers to draw District lines by states and does not allow teams to opt in to a District. So my guess would be that yes they would be required to be a part of the PNW district.

There are lots of flights between AK and Seattle so their prices tend to be lower. My quick search showed that a flight to Seattle from Anchorage was less than half of the cost of a flight to Los Angeles. Of course there is the cost of accommodations which can vary significantly. Many of our district event locations were chosen because they are in areas that have lower hotel rates than our bigger city areas.

So it might be possible to travel to the Seattle area for 2 district events for a similar price as traveling to one Regional in another area. Yes there is definitely going to be more travel time and time away from school/work but that is balanced by aprox 3 times the number of matches.

Re: pic: FIRST USA MAP
 

The good thing however is if enough teams come in Alaska, then an event could be in Alaska. The Alaskan team already has to travel for Regionals and, you are more likely to get to worlds through a district. Plus, the closest U.S. States to Alaska are apart of the PNW district. The only thing that would make slightly more sense for them would be to go to Canadian Regionals but, then each team member would need a passport and go through all the crazy things that are needed to go across country borders.

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Just for the record: SD should be green (2 teams, attending Colorado). That was last season's count anyway.

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Can you explain in greater detail what you mean by this?

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Think about it this way:

Each regional sends 6 teams to the Championship.
Each district sends some number of teams X, where X/(championship capacity)=(district's teams)/(FRC teams as a whole).

If X > 6, the district sends more teams than a regional. Now, some areas have more than one regional. If X > 12... or X > 18...

If the number of teams in a given area remains the same, but more teams can go to the Championship, then there is a higher chance that any given team can go to the championship in any given year. And, you don't have to WIN events to go to the Championship: 3 finalist appearances (one at DCMP) ought to do the trick quite nicely, or 2 finalist and 1 elims, or 3 elims appearances and a few awards. Going under a regional system requires winning or being on the finalist alliance when somebody double-qualifies.

Re: pic: FIRST USA MAP
 

Yes. At a regional, you only get to worlds by winning the event, Chairman's, Engineering Inspiration, or Rookie all star. In reality, the only 2 robots that truly good is the captain and first pick of the winning alliance. The other 4 ways to get to worlds doesn't require a truly good robot.

Now in IN District, those same 6 spots are true. Plus, the next 4 robots in district points get to go to worlds. Most of the district points are awarded by being a good robot at events. So then, you have 6 good robots that get in plus, the 4 robots that don't necessarily have to be good to get in to worlds. IN District is really small. bigger district that have more than 10 spots have more robots to award worlds qualifications. In many other districts, it's those same 4 spots that don't necessarily require your robot to be good, plus however many spots they have left to award to good robots via the district point system. so if your district has 20 spot, then it will be those really good 16 robots, plus the 4 other robots that could be good. This year, we had 14 teams get into worlds from Indiana. 3 from the wait list, 1 being a sustained original team, and the other 10 were the ones I just described above. I felt like out of those 14 teams, 10 of those teams were truly the best 10 teams in Indiana.

So in conclusion, if you have a good robot, you are basically guaranteed a spot to worlds. Some really good robots don't get in due to bad luck and never winning or getting an award. So basically what I am saying is that the district point system is a very accurate representation of good robots for the whole season vs. having good luck during 1 week and getting in.

I hope what I said Clarified what you needed. Sorry for the insanely long post... ;)