[penguinfrk]

Not sure if this is a good way to do it, but VEX tournaments have 3 tiers of participation based on team registration. At small events, only the Excellence Award winner goes to Worlds; at medium events, the champion alliance and two awards (Excellence and Design? Not positive) goes to Worlds; and at large events, the winning and finalist alliances plus the two awards goes to Worlds.

(Correct me if I'm wrong, VEX competitors.)

Perhaps we could stratify FIRST events into two tiers of 50- and 50+? That'd create a lot of logistical complications though, and I'm not entirely sure how teams dropping out/registering last minute would be handled.