[moogboy]

Hi all,

I'm a little bit curious about why FIRST allows teams to sign up for a third regional. I would assume this is a somewhat localized thing to areas where there are a lot of teams, like my own state, Michigan.

Anyway, why is this allowed? What was the spirit of the creation of this provision?

I ask because my team is going to a week 6 regional (Bedford if you're curious) where 27 or 28 of the teams registered have already had 2 competitions. One look at the teams list would lead someone with knowledge of FiM to see that it will be an AMAZING competition with some very strong competitors. This got me thinking, however, about why third events are allowed and whether situations like this are really the most appropriate thing. Obviously this is something of an extreme case that is highly unlikely, but it is conceivable that the 27/28 teams whose performance at Bedford will not affect their standings in the state could contribute all 24 of the robots in eliminations. That just doesn't sit well with me. It seems to me that in a situation like that, where a significant number of teams competed in eliminations but received no points for it when other teams could have received those points, it's kind of cheating those other teams out of an event...if that makes sense?

I totally understand that there are reasons that so many teams are having their 3rd event at Bedford (the reasons why really aren't very important to me, I'm just using Bedford as an example because that was what sparked my thinking about it) and I want to emphasize that I am really just looking to understand the spirit of the law, so to speak, as it pertains to teams getting a third event.

Thanks in advance, and please don't get all angry or overly argumentative over this...