Originally Posted by SciBorg Dave (Post 1507850)

We just received our bill from FIRST WA
$10,866.00 PNW FRC District participation fee
-$5,000.00 PNW Grant
-$5,200.00 Boeing mentor grant ( can only be used for registration)
- $661.00 Washington FIRST Robotics grant
0 Balance Due

Originally Posted by Knufire (Post 1507884)

Looks like all PNW teams paid between $6800 and $0 for two districts and (pending qualification) a DCMP.

That's a deal if I've ever seen one.

Originally Posted by DaveL (Post 1617994)

In the past, teams that did a better job of fundraising had a huge advantage over other teams. Teams that were able to go to 2 or 3 regional events were able to improve with practice, plus gain the extra un-bagged robot time.

There was no way to compete with teams that got an extra 3 to 6 days to drive and work on their bot.

Now with districts we closer to a level playing field. Each team gets to pick 2 events. Their performance (or awards) at these events determines who goes to the regional event. A team's third play performance has no affect on qualifying for a regional event.

Dave

Originally Posted by SoftwareBug2.0 (Post 1618060)

You realize that teams still have the option to go play elsewhere, right?

Not only are teams not prohibitted from going to out of district events but it actually does happen in practice. A PNW team qualified for the chamionship by winning the engineering inspiration award at the Hawaii regional last year.

I don't begrudge 2522 for going and winning awards, and they are a team that I have enjoyed competing with, but there are some ways in which the current system is actually less fair than before. Now 2522 is a team that would have qualified for the championship regardless of the regional that they went to, but image if they weren't:

Their championship slot counts toward the PNW team quota which would mean that they would have displaced some other team. And that displaced team would have been denied a slot at championship because a team that they may not have ever gotten the chance to compete against won an award at some unrelated regional.

Originally Posted by PayneTrain (Post 1618077)

If you look at the brief history of district system teams that
1) go to regionals
2) qualify for champs at that regional
3) would likely not qualify for champs at that regional
you would find enough teams to count on one hand that may be "stealing" slots. As regionals likely take place before a hypothetical team's DCMP, their performance at the event or whether or not they attended the event can be easily chalked up to an exercise in earning the requisite points to be a superfluous endeavor.

Most of these perceived stolen slots come out of district system teams earning regional culture changing awards, a practice no longer allowed as of 2017 (for better or for worse).