[Chief Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

This is an interesting view, and one that actually seems to be born out by the numbers from this year's rankings. Ignoring the 4 Chairman's teams, 22 of the teams that earned a spot at states competed in Duluth. 1 from Wisconsin, and only 3 from Minneapolis. Now, many of those also competed a second time (most in some combination of Minneapolis, Iowa, and Duluth) - in fact, 16 of the teams attending states attended multiple regionals this year.

Honestly, it's a crap shoot when picking a regional to attend as your first event. Some years, you'll be in a regional where the winning alliance is made up of all team's from out of state - that's a LOT of potential points that aren't awarded to anyone. Other times, there's practically no one from out of state. Sometimes a team that wins Chairman's earns a boatload of points that don't really matter anymore, taking them out of the equation for other teams. And, of course, sometimes it's second-play teams that eat up the available points.

Another great post from Jon. This was one of the reasons we (4607) went to Duluth - a venue filled with teams cutting their teeth for the first time. 4607 knew that going to Duluth was (in Jon's words) a crap shoot. A gamble that we lost in humiliating fashion.