[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by Tyler_Kaplan

At all three regionals we went to, Central Valley, Sacramento, and Silicon Valley, the entire Finalist alliance also qualified for world's, so it does happen, at least in CA, somewhat frequently.

I think that this is a slippery slope. When you tell the third robot of the Finalist alliance that they won't be receiving a wild card, and someone who didn't make it to finals will, you're basically telling that team that they didn't really contribute to the alliance much. Imagine being that 3rd robot, and you played amazing defense, you even cheesecaked your robot for the alliance, but FIRST says you don't qualify because you weren't as good as some other captain who lost to your alliance in semi's. I just don't think that's fair to that team.

I'm not saying that the current system is flawless, and there are amazing robots at every competition who don't qualify for world's, but I don't think taking away the wildcard from a Finalist robot is the right thing to do.

To add some more on Tyler's post, the current regional system is one way for a robot drafted 24th to make Champs. Extending the wildcard through the Finalist alliance is a natural step in this logic. This gives teams in the middle a stronger incentive to be competitive. At least the districts system preserves an intermediate championship event for those teams to aim for. We shouldn't undermine that incentive.