Quote:
Originally Posted by dodar
The US Open is invite only. FRC Championship is pretty much earn your way in. FLL Opens are FLL's IRI.
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Again, proof of concept. If this has morphed in the recent year or two, then I must have missed it because I've stepped back a bit from FLL in the past year or so. But it is my understanding that for 2nd place teams, they're "in."
There used to only be THE US open in California. They might have become more privatized in recent years, but again, the concept is still the same. And they're not a group of teams competing in a high school gym. It's a big venue with lots of big exciting things going on, and a truly transformative experience. While IRI is fun, it is not nearly as much of a "championship experience" as the FLL U.S. one in California is.
And THAT is my main point. Regardless of how they're run, it's still second place teams and a transformative championship experience. I've heard similar stories from FLL students and mentors after returning from STL and from California. My point is that having the second-place teams going to a different event that is not technically THE championship, but still offers similar experiences and inspiration is not a bad thing. Again, if the U.S. Open has changed in the last year or so I'm unaware. But I'm speaking to the way it was before.
EDIT: Just browsed the website. The Open has changed since I was involved in FLL programming. I'm speaking to the way the Open used to be run, which was one single event for US 2nd place teams or 1st place teams for events that didn't win the world festival lottery. This is the concept to which I'm speaking. Either way my original point is about the transformative "championship experience" and whether that is lessened by having one "real" championship and one lower level championship. And the answer to that is a solid no. Sorry for the confusion. I didn't realize things had changed.