The district model ends up sending higher quality teams to CMP, no question.
As explained earlier - MAR replaced 2 regionals.
Before (PHL and NJ Combined):
2 Chairman's
2 Engineering Inspiration
2 Rookie All Star
6 Winners - (2) alliance captains, (2) 1st round picks, (2) 2nd round picks
After (MAR):
2 Chairman's
1 Engineering Inspiration
1 Rookie All Star
3 Winners - (1) alliance captain, (1) 1st round pick, (1) 2nd round pick
5 Next highest by qualifying points
It's pretty clear that the district model sends a significantly higher quality of team (on-field performance) to CMP. I seem to recall an EWCP cast where someone from the Michigan system said that they designed the system to emphasize on-field performance.
1. There are now fewer spots for RAS and EI. RAS may be a competitive team, but there's no guarantee of that, especially at a Regional with a small pool of rookie teams. EI isn't a robot award, so no guarantee of quality. The RAS from a district of 100 (MAR) or 200 (MI) should be better than one from a regional 1/2 to 1/4 the size.
2. Regional/District winner spots cut in half. Teams qualify to attend the Region Championship, leading to a much more competitive event. The MI and MAR region championships were both significantly more competitive than the next best Regional (higher match scores, higher average OPR, etc). The teams that eventually win this event should be of higher quality than would emerge from a traditional Regional (this year: 341,25,67,469 - enough said). The 2nd round pick robot is much more likely to be competitive as well (24th best robot out of 100-200 teams vs 24th best robot out of 40-60 teams).
3. (5) spots based on seeding points from 2 district events AND the region championship. This ends up being all of the very good teams who weren't lucky enough to win the region championship event (but very likely won a district event).
The district model guarantees 7 excellent robots (2x winners, 5x points), and 1 very good robot (2nd round winner) to championship (8 of the 12 spots). Two traditional regionals only guarantees 4 good to excellent robots going to championship (4 of the 12 spots).
If you want a perfect example, look at 118 this year. They had one of the best robots of the year, yet it took them 3 regional events to earn their bid to championships. If Texas was a district model they would safely qualify every year, either via region championship win or by points.
As far as I see it, the only downside of the district model is not knowing if you qualify until week 7, and the logistical issues that come with that. Flying to CMP is basically out of the question at that point. We would have qualified via points at the MAR championship, but since we won Montreal we had already booked our flights and hotel rooms, and avoided that nightmare.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Blake
Sean, THANKS for this excellent explanation... AND it all makes sense to me...
So _you do_ feed to CMP MORE competitive (on the field) teams by reducing the amount of Rookie All Stars and Engineering Inspiration and replacing them with high point accumulators in the District Model.
IF you overlay this model you explained JUST on Texas (assuming the caliber of teams remains pretty-much the same)... won't some Texas teams, maybe a good amount, REGULARLY qualify for CMP in District Model when they don't _regularly_ qualify under the 2005-2012 Regional format?
NOT saying this is good/bad... just trying to understand this quantitatively...
BTW... the 16 teams in the Texas District was told to me months ago before Lubbock was announced, so I think you're right about the increase to 24 teams.
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