[Dezion]

In 2014 and in 2015 we attended two regionals each year, all of which required lodging.

In 2016, we attended all four of the NC District events and the NC DCMP. The four district events ranged from 2-3 and a half hours and lodging was required.

The DCMP was in Charlotte, was about 30 mins away, and required no lodging.


When reading everything below, keep in mind I have never attended a Regional event.

In the district model, we played a total of 80 matches. I believe that's more than 2014 and 2015 combined. Playing 80 matches is rough on our robot, but we managed to keep it together. We suffered three issues on our robot, one of which was resolved before our first event. The second issue was our arm, which allows us to do the Cheval and Portcullis. With very limited time to do repairs on it, we unfortunately had to play about one match each event without it (except at Campbell, where larger issues caused us to not play with it in Eliminations at all). Some of these matches we won, some we lost. You don't have a lot of time to fix anything, but it never developed into too large of an issue for us. The third issue was our rhino track coming off, which only occurred once throughout the season... in our 80th match. But, playing all of these matches was very fun.

The first two NC events, Guilford and Wake County, were held at high schools. The field was set in a gym, which was packed with teams. This made these two events very loud, especially Wake County. In my opinion, that only contributes to the experience though. The pits were still located close, and the events functioned well. The second two NC events, Asheville and Campbell, and DCMP, UNC Charlotte, were held at Universities. These events featured larger arenas, but the pits were still located close to the field. All five district events were either ahead or on-time for the majority of the event.

Since districts are smaller, you tend to know teams better (especially if you attend every competition). It's really great to see teams improve throughout the season (5854 and 900 being great examples). Teams you align with in eliminations at one event you may be playing against them in the next event (3336 and 5160 for us). It seems the personal relationships between teams is very high at district events.

District points provide a way to reward consistent medium to high strength teams. You don't have to win anything to move on, but doing so rewards you in district points. Teams that were consistent in their first two events, but not too strong at States, still moved on (2655 and 2642). And earning a lot of district points at states, but not winning can still push you to St.Louis (5518 and 4561) With 4935, we performed well at our first four events (our lowest seed was 11th, and we were an alliance captain or first pick at every event), but because of our somewhat-lacking performance at States, we did not qualify based on district points. Earning District points at States is critical.

tl;dr Districts provide a unique, personal experience with other teams and allows consistent teams to move on to St.Louis.