Quote:
Originally Posted by rsegrest
Connor,
Emphasis mine and really? Who are we talking about? The people who are FIRST employees who deal with the administrative logistics of FIRST or the volunteers in terms of coaches/mentors/field volunteers? Please explain. I only ask because somewhere else in this thread one poster got irritated with another because they felt like they were being told to just 'sit down and accept this...' Are you really saying that anyone who happens to be reserving judgment or may even like this idea should quit FIRST?
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You're right. I was terribly unclear as to what specific idea I was referencing; a clear, well-worded post was difficult to produce out of the anger and disappointment of the moment. I'm not backing down from what I originally said, so I won't delete my original post. Consider this one though to be my level-headed post that I hope will clarify my intentions for the original. I was referring to those employees willing to sacrifice one of the greatest things about this program with no warning and no input from the community whatsoever. The trust and transparency being developed with the community up until this point was completely betrayed by this surprise decision, and that's an unacceptable way of managing this program.
A drastic change such as this should have been proposed to the FRC community, whose responses to such a proposal should have been used to shape an ideal path forward to accommodate the growth of the program. Even if their current plan is to eventually arrive at a super regional model that sends teams to a single championship, there has to be a better solution than splitting championship as the intermediary stage between now and then. World championship isn't just the event where we compete to determine the FRC champion for the year. It's the experience of getting to meet and interact with all of the greatest teams from around the world. It's about the friendships and camaraderie developed between these teams that transcend state and national boundaries.
The championship is as special as it is because all of these teams have the opportunity to gather in one place to compete with and learn from one another. I'm not interested in a format where only the two winning alliances of the two championships get to meet teams from the other region. I want the FRC season to culminate in one single world championship event, a finale that this program deserves. All of the other high school sports may end at the state level, but FRC is not like all of those other sports. It's better, so we should have a competition structure that reflects that fact. The students involved in those other sports don't get to meet other students from all over the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, China, etc. That is an experience that you can't get with any of those other programs, and I don't understand how we could even consider taking that chance away from
everyone.
With this two championships model, it's true that more teams than ever before will be able to meet a select few teams from around the world in a championship environment. But you have to ask yourself, is that really worth dividing this community into two halves that will have almost nothing to do with each other? It's time for people to realize that not every team will be able to compete at a world championship. We may like to be inclusive, but that's simply not realistic. Hopefully someday we will have these super regionals right before a championship that provide the "championship experience" to teams that would otherwise never get the chance, but until then most teams will be left out because most teams aren't of the skill level that a world championship should be at.
Don't get me wrong. Just because I believe champs should be at a high skill level, doesn't mean I'm against rookie all stars, waitlist teams, and Chairman's teams attending world championship out of fear that some of them could "dilute" the competition. I'm not against teams that may not have earned their way there with their robot. I AM against the way they plan to diminish the championship experience in order to "provide inspiration" to an increasingly large number of teams at the expense of those currently earning their way into the championship. There are other methods of inspiration.
tl;dr The world championship is sacred, and should not be touched. Don't ruin the best event of the season.