[pabeekm]

Drawing from my own experience of going to champs for the first time last year, the drop in competitiveness is what scares me most. As was said earlier, this kind of change could very well reduce championships to a glorified convention. My team earning a spot to champs after our first regional win in 11 years was huge to us, and the most valuable part of it to me by far was the pride in seeing how we really could hold our own amongst the best teams in the world. Knowing that we earned our place defined my experience there and my desire to earn our way to champs again.

Inflating champs to such a huge size will mean qualifications will no longer be that world class level of competition; it will be downright saturated with underperforming teams. 600 really feels like pushing it to me, but 800+ is very obviously too far; there simply aren't enough competitive teams to fill even half that quota, and the minority of downright admirable teams will become drastically scattered across the events/ fields. I can’t imagine how disappointing it would be for new students go to the world “championships”, and witness that 20%+ of the robots in their division barely (or don’t) work, and less than five robots are really worth following; that just sounds like a weaker regional.

I’m particularly irked coming from NC, because it’d be nearly impossible for my team in future years to see real world class competition anywhere other than a competitive championship (IRI will never ever be in the budget, and NC is turning into its own district next year). Plus, transportation to champs would still be nasty.

Besides the actual competing aspect, there will be a lot less for teams to learn from at champs. For example, my team is using this year at champs as a building opportunity to focus on learning from others how to improve our infrastructure/ sustainability. If champs were split in two, such an effort would be much less fruitful, because half the teams who know best about that stuff (mainly powerhouse teams) would simply not be there.