Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Johnson
I know it only affects a small number of teams but FIRST should be ashamed of how they have run the Championship Invite List this year.
I don't speak for 246, but I can speak for my own experience as a mentor on a team that was on the bubble. FIRST has been completely opaque. We've gotten basically no explanation of the process or how things would work or when we would know something or not.
Part of our team is convinced that a mistake was made and that we should have been invited based on our rank at the end of the NEF-DCMP. We brought it up with NEF folks only to be told it is out of their hands. We have brought it up with FIRST. No answer. Not a yes, not a no, nothing. When we finally called to get to a live body they didn't seem interested in hearing the argument yet alone explaining why we were mistaken. All they could say was that it is done by an algorithm and they don't explain their algorithms to teams. Repeated request for more info resulted in no response whatever.
Earlier in the week, when some seniors where getting worked up about a potential mistake being made, I assured my team that they'd be treated fairly. I can't say that now. Maybe they were treated fairly. Maybe they were cheated out of an invite to St. Louis. Who can say? It is done by Algorithm and FIRST doesn't explain its Algorithms to teams.
I believe that FIRST owes the community more transparency (any transparency would an improvement). One quote I heard from another mentor, "FIRST is a black box about their CMP list. They make their decisions and explain nothing."
I'll close as I started: FIRST should be ashamed of how they have run the Championship Invite List this year.
Dr. Joe J.
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I would hope the announcement about 2Champz will clarify some things like this whenever they get around to making it. I was assuming there would be an announcement or town hall about it at Champs, but I don't see one on the schedule. If there's a surprise town hall, I'd be willing to be an advocate on this for teams that feel slighted or in the dark about the current selection process, as would others on here, I'm sure. I'd need a crash course in district advancement and why your team thinks they should've gotten an invite, however, since I've been in Regional-ville for my whole career.