Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacob Bendicksen
Is he talking about Hall of Fame teams losing their auto-bid, or just saying that the current system will be in flux? I'd hate to see that happen, but that was my impression from reading it.
Other than that, excellent changes overall, especially with wild cards.
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I think if he was talking about this, he would have said it. Frank doesn't beat around the bush. I would interpret this statement as a blanket statement that the qualification criteria overall may see changes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cjl2625
I like the new wildcard rules.
So if you are an original and sustaining team, attend 3 regionals, win all of them, and also manage to win a Chairman's and an EI, do you generate a total of 8 wildcards? 
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You would generate five or six. 3x regional winner, 1x CA, 1x EI. If you won EI at both of your other events, there would be a sixth wild card.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Flynn
I'm wondering if there is anyone out there that will take these new rules into consideration when picking alliances?
Would anyone decline to stay on the opposite side of the bracket from a powerful 1 seed? Will competitions now be a battle for the finals with winning the event not being as important?
What does everything think?*
*i don't want to debate the ethics on making this decision.
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It was an issue before, and I honestly think it will be slightly less of an issue now. The creation of additional wild cards and the inclusion of pre-qualified teams means that the first pick of an alliance now has a much greater chance of attending the Championship. If you play through various wild card scenarios from last season, you'll see that the first pick of the finalist alliance gets invited far more often.
Take for example this year's FLR. Say through some miracle, the 341-2791-4930 alliance made it to the finals against the other side of the bracket, 3015-340-3044. Under the old rules, if the 340 alliance won, one wildcard would be generated through 340's prior CA win, which would be "spent" on 341, a prequalified team. Under the new rules, not only would that wild card be passed down to 2791, 340 would generate a second wild card by winning EI at Finger Lakes. (This wild card would be "wasted" as 4930 had already won Rookie All Star)
There's also more opportunity to qualify at earlier events. Take TVR, a first event for nearly every team attending. When 20, 1126, and 229 won the event, no wild cards were generated. However, under the new rules, 20 would generate a wild card upon winning, allowing team 250 the chance to attend the Championship.
I'm very happy with this change.