IF they do this lots of MAJOR re-organization is needed so the new nats and two nats won't run into testing, allow for booking, etc.

I am against the idea totally. We could barly afford one nats let alone two. This further makes FIRST more about the competition instead of the learning and the experence.

Re: two nationals
 

Assuming it is like this past year, you would have:

(8 x 3) + (8 x 3) = 48 teams competing at the Championship event. It could work, but does FIRST want to spend so much money holding that event for only 48 teams?

I think the way they are doing it now will still work down the road. You have lots of regional competitions, and from those you can qualify for Nationals. You can even do it sort of like the NCAA, and rank teams based on their points. From that list, only the top 200 go to Nationals ;)

If they do a point based system however, they should only count your best regional. This makes it somewhat more fair for teams that can only afford to go to one regional :yikes:

i think they shoulda just let the rookie all-stars go ;)

Ok I would just like to point out that the word Nationals means a competition that includes everyone in that nation, it actually should be called the internats but oh well. Anyways I dont think having 2 nats is the best way to go b/c one side will eventually become the one where all the hard comp goes and one will be the easy aka loser nats. I agree with others here it should be based on points.
Look at any sporting comp that has a Nats they r allowed to go by winning other comps or being last yrs winner. This is the best option, it allows Nats not to be compromised and allows the best robots to compete. Yes it leaves other teams behind but thats why FIRST came up w/ the odd and even years. Seriously havin 2 Nats and then a comin together one would be ridiculous, honestly who would pick Disneyland over Disneyworld.

I would rather just have one nationals... I think it would be horrible to have two Nationals... Just the thought of splitiing it up like that... If it Nationals then there should be only one not two...

Considering that a large percentage of teams are in the center of the country, talking about an "East Coast" and "West Coast" nationals is kind of rude.

I think they should have a few Regionals (four or five) late in the season, where the Regionals are true regionals. Only those teams located in the Region would be eligible to compete. There would be something like 60-100 teams per Regional.

You would have to register for one Regional in order to qualify for Nationals. Based on the number of qualifying spots, a certain number of teams from each Regional would be able to qualify for Nationals.

For instance, if there are 150 available spots and five Regionals, then 30 teams per Regional could qualify.

Before we decide on two nationals, FIRST needs to fix other problems, like this year there was a lot of technical problems, those in the Archimedes division know that! And they need to find a final home, especially when not many people liked Houston. Maybe in the future, but for now FIRST needs to stick with one national.

East vs West on CBS
 

What about two semi-finals, one east and one west with the the two champions facing off on a one hour show on CBS (or any other major network?)

Highlights from around the country could be shown between matches. Proceeds from show help defray costs of semi-finals.

Ken Loyd
Team 64

Who is John Galt?

all of this talk about 2 nats makes me think.......

If you guys wants 2 nats how about just make an east and west division at the one big nats event. The division in the county(and world) would be the Mississippi river....the east division = the Dean division....the west = the Jason Morella (sp?) division.

next year i believe there will be 26 regionals....3 regional winners....1 chairmans......2 quality awards= 5 teams (26 * 5 = 130 for all of us lazy people out there). Now, we can also take the runners up for each of those award listed above and send them too (130 * 2 = 260). With 260 teams we'd have an event about the same size as what we had this year.

see how 2 ideas can become one

Evan,

3+1+2 = 6 ;)

The problem with this idea is that it leaves you with 260 teams scrambling to make reservations at the last minute. Talk to any team who has registered late and they will tell you its not fun.

If you used this plan you would have to leave at least two months between the last regional and nationals. which either puts regionals in February or nationals in July.

The best thing to do for the short amount of time would be tell all team to prepare for the possibility of attending national. Also have a block of rooms etc. reserved just apply a team when they qualify.

Well, the real benefit to having two nationals would be to allow more teams to have a shot at being national champions. To have two nationals would double the amount of elegible teams. Cost issues, I think that this idea... Could be done, as well as bring wanted attention to FIRST.

This kind of makes me sad... I see people talking about Nationals and all and then I read that people think that you should have to win regionals and all that to make it to Nationals... I think we still need to realize that FIRST is not about winning its about learning and having fun doing what you like to do...

The Idea is really interesting. I still think it would be hard for some teams to swing the money for another trip, especally another national expense.

Good Luck to everone at the invatationals. See You Guys at IRI!