Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperNerd256
Wow that's a lot of teams! Just putting my $00.02 in, I think it can be unfair for any one team to be allowed win more than one regional. They're already going to the championships, so why not give another alliance the chance to make it to St. Luis? Just my opinion here.
|
(Obvious full disclosure:
I'm exceptionally fortunate to be on one of those two-time-champion teams.)
I think you're missing one of the big things about the alliance that won Palmetto--at the time, neither SPAM nor Triple Helix was qualified to attend Championship. I don't think (though I can't really confirm) that either were even registered. Do we just tell SPAM and Triple Helix "Hey, you've got a regional winner on your alliance, so we're stopping you at semifinals. Good game."?
If I'm under this policy, and the Petunia Regional is our first event but the Magnolia Regional later in the season carries more cachet, am I really contemplating giving less than 100% at Petunia just to give ourselves a chance at Magnolia gold?
If I'm us this year, at our home event (Palmetto), with parents and sponsors in the audience, do we shrug off our qualification rounds because we know we won't have a shot at a second title and can more or less pack up before lunch ends?
(I won't even go into the implications for Hall of Fame and original and sustaining teams, who are qualified automatically.)
Heck no! Some guy in denim keeps saying a society gets the best of what it celebrates. I certainly don't want to celebrate a system where teams are coming to an event prepared to go off half-cocked because of a well-intentioned but constraining let's-give-everyone-a-chance policy.
Currently, the waitlist does an adequate job of handling these extra spots. Eventually, FIRST will grow to the point that they can book Championship up entirely on qualifying teams (and even then with some anticipated fudge factor based on double-qualifying teams). After they grow beyond that threshold, who knows? But for now, I can't find fault in their system.