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Unread 12-04-2015, 16:36
Squillo Squillo is offline
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AKA: Cynthia Hannah-White
FRC #2465 (Kauaibots)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Rookie Year: 2010
Location: Kauai, Hawaii
Posts: 150
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Re: Preparing for the Town Hall Meeting on the New Championships Format

OK, I'll start out by saying that I *know* this is not perfect. However, I think it's an idea that hasn't been proposed before, and it has some merit (IMVHO).

It seems to me that one thing we are dealing with here (on CD) is the potential loss of inspiration to the top teams, caused by not being able to win/compete for a true "World Championship" (minor factor I hope), coupled with not being able to visit with and be inspired by ALL the other great ("top") teams at a single event.

Let's face it, for the "run of the mill" (RotM) teams (like ours), going to a 1/2-world championship-type-event will be plenty inspiring. Heck, just going to a second regional (with 254 and 1678) was pretty inspirational, in terms of meeting and being inspired by great teams. Also, for RotM teams, traveling to ONE 'championship'-type event, if feasible (in terms of time and money) at all, can be a stretch; adding levels would just make things worse (consider - when VEX recently changed its tournament model here in Hawaii, requiring attendance at more competitions to get to a "big" event, ALL (4 or 5) of our island's VEX teams folded, since they just couldn't afford the multiple inter-island trips that had become necessary to get to the "fun" level of competition they had previously enjoyed).

I don't think any mentors from RotM teams are going to quit over this new FRC change, nor are most of those teams going to be significantly less "inspired" by the prospect of attending an event with 400 great teams from 1/2 the world, rather than 600-800 "slightly greater" teams from the whole world; the issues here are coming from the top teams, and they are important - we don't want them all defecting to Vex Pro or whatever, as it will seriously damage FRC for ALL of us. So how to solve THEIR problems, which are:
- No chance to see ALL the other inspiring teams in one place, and
- No chance to compete against those teams, and Win the World Championship.

What if FIRST selected a small group of these "elite" teams, maybe like this:
- All HoF teams; and
- All Winning and Finalist Alliance Captains from regionals and District Championships (someone tell me how many this is);
- The winning alliance from the first Championship.

and said this to those teams: If you attend "your" geographic championship, we (FIRST) will pay your way to the OTHER geographic championship - no entry fee, subsidized hotel, travel and food for a set number of people (12 comes to mind).

That way, BOTH championship events would/could include ALL the top teams; all of them, and all of us RotM teams, could be inspired by them; they could compete TWICE, against ALL the best teams, for a World Championship; the Championships would be pretty high-level, with less room for waitlist teams; added bonus - the second alliance captain would have a small incentive to reject a pick by the first, since only an AC could attend TWO championships, making the elims more exciting and competitive to watch while still getting the 2nd seed a good chance at a high honor.

The downside is, of course, the time and expense for the top teams of traveling to two championships. But they'd get to go to TWO championships!! How cool is that? There could be "the grand rematch" at the second championship, with the same captains and slightly different alliances, or totally different finalist alliances - in which case, the winners of each championship could still be proud of having won at a competition with ALL the best teams.

And the top teams are, generally, those with the most resources in terms of people (i.e., 'second string' teams, more mentors), sponsors, money... so if anyone can afford MORE competitions, it's them.

Why isn't this a good idea? Someone shoot me down, I can't wait to hear it.

Last edited by Squillo : 12-04-2015 at 16:50. Reason: Thought of one more thing.
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