Quote:
Originally Posted by wilsonmw04
.... I truly believe that EVERY team should have the opportunity to compete at champs at least once every 4 years. Yes, that means the level of competition will be lower. Yes, there might be brave little toasters at champs. That's how I think it should be.
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We're gonna need a bigger boat...
Assuming 2400-ish teams for 2013 (there will likely be more), this would require an event (at minimum) of 600 teams or about 50% more FRC teams than last year which was about 10% larger than the previous years. In order to get a reasonable number of matches, this would require 6 divisions. Not impossible, but this would require a drastically different event than what we currently have.
This is a noble goal, but with an ever growing league, I see the league running out of room somewhere in the very near future for even strategy like that. This would also require seperating Regional Performance from Championship attendance i.e. no repeats to the Championship. I.E. if you go one year, no matter how well you do, you will not be going back for another 4 years. Those "quality teams" will not be around again for a long time...
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I talked to a couple of teams that were not competing at the 2012 event, but decided to go. I think they had a good time, but would have preferred to be competing. I also talked to a team that was there due to a buy slot. I asked them what they liked about the championship.
#1. Getting to talk with students from other teams.
#2. Scholarship row.
Puzzled, I asked if they enjoyed competing there. The respoonse I got was:
Yes, but the first two were way more important.
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Almost every district event has a team that will eventually be at the championship. Michigan teams will have an opportunity to play with really solid teams.
If you want to play with the best, go to a Regional with the best. Hit up Waterloo, the Silicon Valley, Vegas, Midwest, BAE... You will see a better cross section of teams in a setting where you get more times to play with them than at an event like the championship.