[brrian27]

I could really argue both sides of the weight list.

Last year my team went to the Championship for the first time ever, and we were off the wait list! We actually had a decent robot, and ended up finishing 55th in Curie.

Anyway, that was an amazing experience! We could see the teams we've always admired, enjoy a huge competition, and (being on the drive team) play in front of more people than ever before. It was incredible.

This year we did not attend the Championship. But I feel we were pretty deserving to go. We were finalists in one of our regionals, and had a Dean's List finalist who traveled to St. Louis on her own (plus two Spirit Awards if that counts for anything). We had a great year and wanted to continue it in St. Louis, but couldn't. One of our alliance partners in Virginia, team 1418, were finalists at BOTH of their regionals. They definitely deserved to go, and I feel we should have shot as well.

So a hybrid system would be best in my eyes. Have 10-15 purely wait list teams per division, then make up the rest of the new teams through Finalists and other major award winners.