Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Van
FIRST does not publish the waitlist for any event. The reason is that teams are not taken in order from the list. Any of a large number of factors might determine which teams are given an opportunity to attend any regional or the Championship (who your sponsors are, how long it has been since you attended, specific team makeup, special events at any particular regional or the Champs, are you a local team, etc.). Of course one of those factors is when you joined the list, but is certainly not the only one.
- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregor
Do you have a source for this, or is it a (probably pretty good) assumption?
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I can't confirm this with any concrete evidence, but from past experiences* with my former team, I'm fairly confident that Mr. Van is correct.
It's no secret that events will 'hide' spots for a variety of reasons, one of the most common of them being that they're reserving space for any potential rookie teams that may start up in mid-late fall. At one point or another (not sure when exactly) these spots will be opened up, and assigned to teams on the waitlist based on different factors - the most common factor seems to be location, a local team usually seems to get in over one that's not. I've heard of the others that Mr. Van listed above coming into play as well, especially at the Championship.
*In 2009, 2010 and 2011 we were wait-listed when trying to register for the Championship through the open Registration Process. If I remember correctly, we weren't taken off the waitlist in either year until the later half of build, even though one of the teams advisers called just about everyday to ask about our status. When we finally did get in, one of the reasons cited was that we had the money ready to send to HQ to cover our registration. In 2011, we weren't able to get in, even after spending most of the season on the waitlist with money in hand - which we speculated was due to the fact that we had been to the Championship something like 8 times in the previous 9 years.