[dodar]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

They're implementing "Wild Card" spots this year. Based on my understanding, any team that wins a second slot at a second regional by winning a regional will give that spot to a team on the finalist alliance. As a result, we're probably going to see much greater utilization of earned spots than we've seen in the past. The only cases we won't see it is for teams that earn their second spot through award (Chairman's, Engineering Inspiration, Rookie All-Star), or who win two spots at a single regional.

Do the math though... There are 58 regionals, two districts, and pre-qualified teams (Original and Sustaining Teams, Hall of Fame Teams, Einstein teams).

Lets focus on those 58 regionals. If we assume 4 teams on the winning alliance, plus 3 teams earning their way through awards, thats over 400 spots FIRST has to make available. Add in the districts and pre-qualified teams, and you're guaranteed to have over 400 teams at Champs. FIRST would have to make some big changes to be able to support that many teams at Champs - there just isn't enough room.

Exactly though, 58*7=406. So lets say 450 teams.I think there usually is something close to 50 open slots.