Quote:
Originally Posted by efoote868
Seems to me that the powerhouse teams sign up for 2, maybe 3 regional competitions to increase their odds for an invitation. What if to qualify for a super regional, you just need to make it to the semi-finals or win an engineering award at one regional? Then teams would still compete in their same 2 events per year prior to a championship.
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I know of situations in FTC where this has happened. I don't remember (and want to call out) team names, but I remember some teams in 2013/2014 FTC that didn't qualify for super regionals in their area,
so they paid their way to an event further away to compete and qualify for a different super-regional.
Right now the line of competitions for Michigan FTC is:
1 or 2 districts --> states --> super-regionals --> worlds.
Before super-regionals, only 1 team from states would move on to worlds; the Inspire winner. With the addition of super-regionals, my kids could compete with high-level high school teams, and learn from them. I have no doubt the same would be true for FRC.
I would like to see FRC (and FTC) lock teams into area events so they can't steal a spot from other teams by going to an outside event.
Right now, Michigan has the set up:
2 or 3 districts (only first 2 count towards states) --> states --> worlds.
As the program grows in every state, I would like to see:
2 or 3 districts --> states --> super-regionals --> worlds.
I believe this system works great for FTC, and my kids enjoyed super-regionals just as much as I have enjoyed worlds.