Quote:
Originally Posted by Hallry
Exactly. Either they can try to qualify for St. Louis through their District Championship OR try to qualify through an outside regional. Then it wouldn't be possible for them to use up two spots, which this whole issue is really about.
And I disagree, the two district events would not be at all pointless. Where better to get great driver practice and find ways to improve your robot than at competitions to 'warm up' for your World Championship qualifying event, especially if your performance at the districts wouldn't matter?
I can almost see it...there...on the horizon...
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Meant to say pointless in terms of qualifying. I definitely can get behind the driver practice/robot improvement side of things, but then what about if your regional does not come after the districts, but before like ours did. It would be pretty terrible to compete at two events with no chance of advancing further.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZehP
How many district teams actually compete at Regionals? It can't be too many given the extra time commitment and the extra costs for registration and travel.
Barring district teams from Regionals would inconvenience the few teams that attend them, but you could argue that barring non-district teams from district events is comparable, if not worse.
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Off the top of my head, the MAR teams that traveled in 2013 were:
11, 25, 87, 341, 365, 2016, and I think 1676 was wait listed for NYC.
Some of these teams have expressed some interest in traveling again next year.
Not sure about Michigan besides from 245 who was also at Palmetto. And I know some other teams from NE and PNW traveled outside of their general area last year as well.
Yes, regional teams do not get the added benefit that a district system brings, but they are much less limited in terms of where they have to compete and when (no MAR events Week 2 or Week 6, and only one each on Weeks 4 + 5).
I may be biased as a travel ban would affect my team, but I still believe that there are better courses of action than an all out travel ban.