[EricH]

Oooh boy...

Let me start by saying that while I do want the Championship to be a qual-to-attend event, I understand that it's a lot more inspirational to attend than to not, even if you get your behind handed to you every match. So, can't be solely on robot merit. I'm also going to utterly ignore FLL and FTC, other than assuming that they'll be taking up roughly the amount of space used now.

Let's start by cutting the number of teams/division. Let's arbitrarily make it 70 (for now), with an absolute cap at 80. 70*4=280 slots. 80*4=320 slots. Not enough with only 4 divisions to get even all of the qualifiers.

So... We add a pair of divisions. Let's call them Watt (after James Watt) and Tesla, just for grins. 6 divisions, each with 70 teams, that's 420 teams max, with potential to grow to 480. Eliminations within each division play like normal; Einstein is TBD (leaning towards a round-robin where the top two play each other in best-of-three). I'm assuming that space can be worked out, either in the current venue or in another one.

Here's the fun part, though. Of those 420 spots, a minimum of 20 are open only to teams who have not been to the Championship in more than 4 years. Registration is offered by FIRST when the teams sign up, on the basis of maximum time since attendance (veteran teams returning as rookies excepted), and can be accepted or declined by the team. Another X slots are opened in a similar way, but on the waitlist.

The remainder of the slots (in this example, 400) are open only to qualifiers--the standard winners, RCA, EI, RAS system, or the District-model qualifications. Each district system can qualify a number of teams determined by their percentage of the whole FRC competition--1% sends 4 teams, for example. Wild Cards are in force anywhere the district system is not, and INCLUDE slots taken by a district team competing outside their area.

Eventually, with the district model taking over entirely, it'll all be district/district championship qualification--but I'd still want to hold 20 or so slots for teams needing an injection of inspiration. How to hand them out? That's a tough one.