This year my team (303) Won two technical awards. Motorola Quality Award in Annapolis, and the GM Industrial Design Award at the J&J Mid-Atlantic Regional. But due to FIRST's 5 point system (this only gives us 4) We are not eligible for next years Championship. We were chosen at all three of our events (Nat's, Rutgers, Chesapeake) for the finals in addition to those two awards. So unless we win another technical award, or win a regional, or get chairmans, Nationals are a inaccessible to us.

Points don't carry over to next year....

Winning a technical award, regional, or Regional Chairman's Award is an automatic qualification to attend Nationals under the current system.

The points are irrelevant.

True...

In case you didn't realize I am referring to next years nats (2004) not this years. Points carry over to the following year
That is assuming the qualification system remains the same for next year. And Technical awards and such are for the current year only, not the next. The next year they are two points.

I can't even begin to describe the disappointment of missing Nationals this year. Unlike most teams that went, we were not granted a spot. We earned one. We didn't get that spot by impressing anybody, or winning some award. Our alliance managed to beat 40-some other teams to win that incredibly competitive regional. We had a chance to compete at Nationals, and maybe even take it all....just look how close our ally got. Money, commitment, and legalities really were not the issue. Time kept us from competing. 15 minutes were alloted to us to make a decision. That's all we got. After one of the most incredible showings our team has had in its history, we had to end it abruptly, simply due to time. This is a situation that FIRST should consider in the future. Winning at any other point would have given us or another team the opportunity to organize itself and then make a decision. We were not given this opportunity, and were forced to go home early.....That's life, I guess. At least I went out on top....thanks to 25 and 340!

Points do not carry over from one year to the next.

Your team must earn 5 points in a single season to be eligible to attend the Championship during the following season.

You cannot earn, for example, 2 pts. in 2003 and 4 pts. in 2004 and be eligible to attend either the 2004 or 2005 Championship.

I know that, but this year we earned four points, which isnt enough for the 5 point system.
I referred to the technical awards in my first post because they are automatic.

Well all this discussion of who gets what points for what is getting off the topic.

Since the point system wasn't even on the agenda at this year's FIRST forums I imagine that it is going to be the same this year and for years to come.

Sorry

Although I would love to be given QP, I must admit that it is not exactly for teams that do not have as many *wonderful* sister-teams. I do suppose it would be just like the real world, mooching the big guys:P But let us be kids for now. :) Try your hardest, have fun, and if you don't make it to Nationals- learn from your mistakes and come back even stronger to show off in Altana for the following year. :)