Re: Nationals & Rookies
 

[quote=Steve Howland]

I have not looked up which teams went and which teams proceeded to fold, but I'm fairly sure that FIRST did a little research on the topic. [quote]

Last year, FIRST followed-up by phone with most of the teams who did not return. The plan is to do the same this year.

Re: Nationals & Rookies
 

Last year out of the 186 Rookie Teams that competed at regionals, 35 qualified for Championships. This year out of the 226 rookie teams competing in regionals, 38 have qualified. As the number of rookie teams increase, the percent invited to championships will decrease unless there is another mechanism for invitation. However the ratio still approximates the number of veteran teams who are able to go to championships as well.

So in reality, at this point it still is fair, as fair can be...

Just to muddy the waters, there was one rookie team last year that went to Championship without meeting the qualifications...not a Rookie All Star and not a Regional Winner... If they want to fess up and let the rest of the rookies know how they slipped in....