[ryanftc2827]

Some info here may be wrong, but this is what I've gathered from researching about how the lottery works.

The lottery is not a one day event, and not as random as it sounds. My understanding is that the "lottery" part of the system is only how they determine the order of which they extend the invites. This means at some point early in the season, FIRST has a lottery to determine the order of the different tournaments. So as the season goes along, and as the order permits, they will give out the invitations to the teams in the first tier of the lottery. Because the order of the list in no way reflects the order of the tournaments, some teams will hear back very quickly while some will have to wait for other tournaments to be held that are above them on the list. Looking at the list of teams invited, you can see that some tournaments have three teams invited and some still have two. If I counted correctly, there are 44 regional tournaments, and therefore 88 automatic invitations. As you mentioned, they seem to be expanding the field to a number larger than the previous 100 teams, so it would seem that most of the first tier will get an invitation. However, until we know the official number of teams FIRST wants, we can't know for sure how far through the tiers they will get.

For now, we can count the number of tournaments that have already had a first pick team invited and conclude that's the current spot in the lottery order. I counted 39 tournaments that have already been held, and 27 tournaments with more than the two automatic invites. This means we are at 28 on the list of 44 and would also mean that one of the tournaments yet to be held is the 28th slot, holding up 12 tournaments in the lottery. Connecticut, Nevada, Michigan, Wyoming, Tennessee, Potsdam, Alberta, Minnesota, British Columbia, Illinois, Hudson Valley, and Delaware all must be lower than the 28 slot in the lottery. Any other tournament already held is then higher. This could be useful information when potentially looking at a 2nd tier.

I cannot say for sure if this is exactly how it works, as I'm sure there are some exceptions for various tournaments and what not. Hope this helps any who may have been confused and if anyone else has any information, please share!