It happened to our team, too. We went from 201 to 251 (no sponsor to EDS), then got the 201 back when we picked up Visteon in 2000.

Qualifying
 

Can't they just have semi-finals? Then the winners from those Competitions could go to Nationals.?

Our main sponsor changed company names, meaning we had to change our number (EDIT: and name). ((I'm pretty sure that's why. If not, it's because we expanded to 2 major schools and had to change names. My brother's team alumni and says it's the former.))

You may be right but it certainly isn't fair to those who qualify in the last weeks of regionals and need to make thier trip arrangements last minute.

I also have a problem with grandfathered teams getting in without qualification because they were from the first year. I am not sure why that is a policy but I assume some promise was made years ago.

All teams should be allowed to play in the Nationals. The challenge to get there should be the challenge of arranging the trip. FIRST needs a much larger venue and more help from the teams at large to run it.

WC:cool:

I predict in 4 years you will have to win a chairman's or judge's award to make nationals... Like they say FIRST isn't just winning so I think winning a regional will not matter too much...