[mr_yes]

I was thinking of starting a new thread, but this one fits pretty nicely.

I've been thinking about FIRST Choice, and I've decided that if I were running it, I'd use a slightly different approach. IMPORTANT NOTE: This is not a knock against the folks at AndyMark, who do many great services to the FIRST community and who have worked very hard to put together a system that will stand up to a massive onslaught of page requests. That onslaught, in my mind, is the heart of the problem they are having right now. A system in which everyone has to sign on at the same time to get the "good stuff" is prone to these kinds of problems. So here is my approach (with apologies if someone else has posted the same ideas elsewhere on the forums).

When FIRST Choice opens up in November, teams are free to put their first order together during a two-three week open period. The order looks much like the current system, except 1) teams can order more than the number of points they have been allotted in case some of their items run out, and 2) the order includes a field for each item ordered that is the priority of the item for that team. Multiple quantities of items will be treated as separate items.

After the open period closes, the order system allocates the items in order of how many points each team has left. So at the start, when everyone has, for example, 150 points, the system goes through the inventory (in popularity order) and for each item it awards that item to teams that have that item as their first unfulfilled priority. If more teams want an item than are in inventory, a random pick decides who gets the item. At the end of round 1 every team has had their #1 priority addressed. Either they got it or not, On to round 2.

In round 2 the same algorithm is applied, only the field is a lot smaller, because only the teams with the highest number of points remaining are addressed. These are probably the teams that didn't get their first priority in round 1 and still have 150 points left. All of these teams have their next unfulfilled priority addressed (i.e. their #2 priority item).

Each subsequent round goes like this until 1) all teams are out of points, or 2) all teams' priority lists have been exhausted. (I thought that there was a #3 all inventory is gone, but that is covered by #2.)

At kickoff, the same method is applied, but the open period is much shorter, say until noon on the Monday after kickoff. Because teams completed their orders during the open periods, the shipping information will be in the system and ready to go. There isn't any reason why teams couldn't place orders after the open period is over, but those teams might miss out on the critical first rounds where the "good stuff" gets grabbed.

Have at it community, what are the flaws in my scheme?