[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Squillo

Thanks for the input! Here's my analysis:

As you say, there were 56 regionals this year, and 5 DCMPs. Assuming a few more districts are created, in a year or two there might be 8 DCMPS and maybe only 44 regionals? Is that reasonable (I don't know how many regionals typically disappear when a District is created, I'm assuming 4 but let me know if that's off). In a couple more years there might be 10 Districts and only 36 regionals? Maybe fewer?

So with no overlap, with two teams from each regional and DCMP qualifying for my "double champs ticket" that would be between 122 (61 events) and 92 (46 events) teams qualifying that way, plus the HoF and Legacy teams (you say 27, so we'll go with that). We could even leave out the HoF and Legacy teams (many of those will get a double ticket anyway by winning something).

However, it won't be that many, because some of the same teams will be winning or finalist captains at multiple regionals, and some of those are also HoF teams (e.g., this year, Team 359 would have gotten a "double ticket" 3 ways - captain of winning alliance in Hawaii and Australia, and HoF; but with the new arrangement, they might have elected to stay AC of the #2 alliance at IE, rather than accepting the invitation of the #1 captain, and gotten a ticket that way too if they ended up winner or finalist). With more districts, this multiple qualification will decrease some. Let's say that about 20% of the total slots would be filled by teams that already have a ticket. No wildcards here! (However, these teams may elect to skip a 2nd or 3rd regional if they know they can go to 2 champs instead, so duplication may decrease. This is hard to predict but someone looking at the winners this year could maybe make a better estimate.)

So that leaves about 95-120 teams that would get a "double ticket". Half of these (well, +/-) will be "Region A" teams that get to also go to the Region B Championship, and vice versa. So about 50-60 teams from each region that would otherwise go, will get "displaced" by a 'double-ticket' team. With 400-team regionals, that means 50-60 fewer waitlist teams, and each regional would have maybe 90-100 of these elite teams (depending on whether a larger or smaller number could afford to make the extra trip), and 300 "not-so-elite" teams. A pretty good balance for inspiration of ALL teams, I think - just as "inspiring" (if top-caliber teams are where you get your inspiration) as the 2014 400-team champs, no?

What would this cost FIRST? Well, they would lose the registration fee for the teams that got displaced by the double-ticket holders, so about 50 x $5000 for each competition, or a total of about $500,000 (but they could get it back by increasing the total size of each championship to 450). If FIRST gave each team $5,000 toward their travel and hotel costs, that's about $1,000,000 total, to create what I think would be a really awesome experience for ALL of the teams attending both events. The teams that have earned a Top Spot would get 2 championship experiences, with all (or most) of their top competition at both (or at least at one or the other), and the ability to inspire 600 other teams in total (300 at each event).

FIRST could get whatever they are getting out of having two championships (more teams able to go, less travel distance/cost for many); the cities would get what they have bargained for (maybe actually more); the top teams would have what it seems they are looking for (top competition, to be able to inspire and be inspired by ALL of the best, to see their opposite-region buddies, etc.); the other teams would not lose out on the inspiration provided by top teams in the 'other region' and more of them could go - yet they could still aspire to becoming a "double ticket" team themselves. And the championships couldn't really get too stacked one way or the other, since a "double ticket" (DT) team could not eschew their "own" championship to go to the other. (I guess there could be an agreement that all DT teams from Houston would go to Detroit, and no DT teams from Detroit would go to Houston, making Detroit into the stronger competition - or vice versa - but I wonder if that would/could actually happen? They could implement some kind of swap, where a team from Region A had to agree to go to Region B before one could actually go from B to A - and vice-versa - as has been proposed in the basic swap idea. But here there would also be MORE top teams at both, not just different ones.)

$1,000,000 seems a small price for FIRST to pay for this much awesomeness.

Actually, we qualified 4 ways this season giving 3 wild cards. You don't have to be an alliance captain to give a wild card as long as you win the event.