[Nemo]

I think Iowa benefits more than anybody. This year we got two spots to Worlds out of 130+ teams, which made us the most underrepresented area anywhere. Having the Super Regional in our state will be fantastic.

I think it will be much easier to advance to Worlds now, because something like 1/4 of the teams from state will advance, then something like 1/4 of the teams from Super Regionals will go to Worlds. That's way less random than 2 out of 48, so anybody who brings a really solid team and robot is going to have a great chance of advancing. The way it has been in Iowa the past few years, any given team, no matter how good, only ever had a random chance of winning as the captain of the first alliance with only 5-6 qualifier matches. The Inspire Award isn't random, but that has gone to FTC 3550 (Beta) every year I've been involved (won at Worlds this year).

Qualifying the entire winning alliance is such a huge improvement. I'm very glad to see that. Travel expenses and time are the drawbacks, but I think the super regional system comes out ahead on balance.