[ASmith1675]

The locations selected do see odd if the goal was to ease travel concerns. Flying to Houston or Detroit is probably a bit easier than to St Louis, but its definitely not any easier to drive to either of those locations from the coast.

Participating with teams that haven't moved to districts yet, its been a bit sad to see fewer and fewer teams from outside the state come to regional competitions. We used to see a good number of teams from Michigan at the Wisconsin and Midwest regionals, and now with Indiana in districts we no longer see friends from that state either. This is an understandable result of the district system, and I had hoped that we might begin to see inter-district play as the standard to allow some of those truly inspiring teams to spread their message beyond their state borders.

I am concerned that this change to the Championship event will further limit the cross-pollination of teams that many rarely get the chance to see in person. It seems like they want to create an east and west super-district. While I can see the logic in getting as many team as possible to experience the championship event, how would it feel if you couldn't see your favorite robot in person because of geography. West coast teams would likely never see 1114, and those on the east would never see 254. Sad for all involved.

I suppose its a good problem to have overall that the program has grown to this point. I just hope there is a better solution than to directly divide the country as it seems has been proposed.