[Joe G.]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

The only way a four-tier system works is if the final tier (where the Super Regional/FIRST "Championship" winners play the last couple matches) is kept to a very small number of teams. It would be cool to send the last 4 alliances to one central location (on FIRST's dime, and on a weekend to avoid missing work/school) to do a polished, professionally-produced, live televised 2 hour "Superbowl"...

Get Al Michaels and Dave Verbrugge to do match commentary. Get Grant Imahara and Erin Andrews to do sideline interviews. Use the lead time to do in-depth exposes on the teams and students involved. Invite VIPs and give them the red carpet treatment in a more intimate, less overwhelming venue than a football stadium with thousands of teams. Have simultaneous live viewing parties around the world hosted by FRC teams, ala kickoff.

I think it could be pretty cool if done right. I'd still prefer to see a District Event -> Super Regional -> World Championship format, but this would make the best of the changes that have seemingly already been finalized.

(Oh, and let teams sign up for a first-come, first-served list for swapping "Championships" if they desire)

I completely agree that a small championship with larger "showcase" events earlier in the year is probably ultimately the best approach to satisfy need to have both a conclusive championship matchup and a spectacle the scale of the current format championship, especially since the consistently extreme quality level at this final tier would be perfect for mass exposure. I feel as though you would have to make it a little larger though, just enough to allow it to play out as a traditional event with quals/alliance selection/elims (although I could also see a number of in-between options, with performance from previous events somehow weighing into the rankings, allowing for shorter quals matches and potentially a longer form elimination tournament).

This would prevent a problem which would arise in any setup where you carry alliances across tournaments: What if a team, for whatever reason, has to decline the invitation? It would also allow an alliance selection for the championship of the world to occur in a single division format. This has been impossible with the current champs setup for a very, very long time, but it may do a great deal to help determine the "true" best robots. I can think of numerous examples of "what if?" alliances which were never able to happen due to division lines. By making picking a free for all among teams who achieve an elite level of performance (probably some autobids+district point rankings at the north and south events), you can create some mind boggling alliance pairings.