Quote:
Originally Posted by TDav540
IMHO, the judged awards (excluding EI and Chairman's) are weighted well enough considering the cutoff for district championships. Chairman's gains automatic entry to the next level, so the amount of points it provides is relatively irrelevant. EI could and possibly should be weighted more highly than 8 points, but at most it shouldn't be over 12 points.
At the end of the day, the District Championship and Worlds want to have the best robots in the world competing for the crown. This is NOT to say that they don't care about the judged awards: they do, especially EI and Chairman's. But since the robot construction and competition is the main attraction of students, mentors, and sponsors, it makes sense that a large majority of the field is attending because of robot quality.
|
Truth in advertising, while my team makes a pretty good robot, our outreach (EI, Chairman's) is way better. I am not really the one advocating a change. BUT.
Being a rookie gives you the same points as a district chairman's, 2 more than EI, & 5 more than the other judged awards, some of which are based on robot quality. EI will not even get your robot to district Champs. The stated goal for championships is to give every team a chance to attend. If you read
First management's statement on the expanded Championship. First's goal is to get young people into STEM, not to build robots.
Please do not read into this what my opinion on the points system is. Other than its complicated and you won't satisfy everybody. Other than that I really have not though about enough to have a strong opinion.