Quote:
Originally Posted by GaryVoshol
I'm wondering how GA is going to save money going to the district system. Are all these schools donating their space for district events, like high schools do in other Districts? (I understand FiM gets a really good deal at Kettering and GVSU, which is why these two events are not in high schools.)
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I'm not fully sure how how Indiana FIRST or in your case, Georgia FIRST makes prices this low but district events to teams, are a lot cheaper. I know by the time we got past the District Championship, The price was the equivalent to the price of two regionals. The first 2 district events were $2,500 and the third (Not required) was $1.000. Then the district championship was $4,000. In all, that cost us $10,000. Plus whatever Worlds cost. So basically, you can get to worlds by $9,000 if you so choose. Plus, say your team isn't good enough to go to district champs, then all they spend is $5,000.
So it isn't necessarily cheaper event wise but, you save money if you aren't good that year. Plus, with district events being closer, you don't have to spend nearly as much on hotels compared to if you go to regionals. I know my team stayed at hotels at 2 of our 4 district events and that was just because we had the money/ sponsorship to and was convenient. The biggest drive we ever had to make was 1 hour and 30 minutes. I know of some teams in our area never stayed at hotels because they could save money that way.
Another thing about the districts is that you are more capable of making it to worlds versus going to 2 regionals. In Indiana, we were guaranteed 10 spots for worlds but were able to send 14 out of our 49 teams due to wait list and the fact that Team 45 is an original team. I know that a good amount of the teams that made it to worlds from IN may have not been able to win a regional due to bad luck. So if you actually have a good bot in your district, you don't have to win an event to make it to worlds.
All in all, the districts save you money on hotels mainly and, you have a better chance at making it to worlds if your robot is good and you run into some bad luck. being apart of a district gives you many advantages and money is definitely a big factor.
I'm not sure how Georgia will make there spots for worlds but, Indiana FIRST's spots were as following:
3 Spots: Winner (234, 1024, 292)
1 Spot: Chairman's (135*)
1 Spot: Engineering Inspiration (1501)
1 Spot: Rookie All Star (5403)
4+1 Spots: Next teams based on District Points (5188, 71, 5402, 1720, 1741*)
For this year we had these additional spots given to us:
2 Spots: Wait List (135*, 829)
1 Spot: Original Team (45)
1 Spot: TBH, I'm not sure (3940)
*135 was given the Chairman's award. They were previously accepted in via the Wait List. This added 1 more spot to Next teams based on District Points. This allowed 1741 to go to worlds. The same thing would happen if the winner of the event wins 1 of 3 "Big" awards or get in on the wait list. Same would also happen if the winner of RAS or EI got in on wait list too.
Hope I didn't make this too complicated. Thanks for reading.