[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

Instead of taking away what makes championships what it is, make DCMP's and regionals more inspiring. MSC is an incredible event because it has all the best teams from all over Michigan and awesome production values.
NECMP is exciting because it has the best of New England concentrated at one place, but it could use the production value of MSC.

Work on getting everyone to districts and making their district championships awesome. Worlds is what it is because of the teams that get to go there. Worlds should be a goal to achieve, not a giveaway.

Going from a 400 team format to 800 teams brings in 2,000,000 more money in registration fees alone. Every extra team that "earns" a spot to Champs via wait list or wildcard, means more $$$ for FIRST.
I can see HQ not wanting 1 venue's constraints getting in the way of that if true.
Even if we all could make the DCMPs and regionals more inspiring, that won't be the trade off to limiting Champs.
As much as I personally agree with what you are saying about keeping Champs a much harder, more prestigious event to get into, the growth of FIRST and other factors have led to this already made decision.
Like you I am disappointed that as currently planned, we won't get to see 1/2 of the teams that we all looked forward to seeing in years past.