[Chak]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Up until 2002, basically everyone did go to Nationals (what we know now as Championship). For anyone interested in some decade+ old opinions on this change, this thread is worth perusing:
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=664
A copy of the actual letter sent out explaining the system can be found in this post:
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...1&postcount=17

There was another change in eligibility again a couple years later (2004), which laid out the regional qualification method still used today (minus the wild card system). Also worth reading about:
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=22322

Thanks for the history lesson!

What I'm getting is that CD never stopped complaining, and FIRST will go ahead with their decision despite complaints.

Originally Posted by Matt Leese

The more and more I think about this announcement the more and more I dislike it. The number one problem I see with it is that it creates a group of "elites" who will always get to go to nationals (whether through the automatic perenial qualifiers or just always having a good robot). This leaves out a lot of teams. And a good number of these teams are going to feel a lot of anger and hate to these "elites." While this does already happen to an extent, it will only be extenuated by the fact that these "elites" now get special priviledges (guaranteed a spot). This will just increase the antagonism among teams. And this will be particularly profound among rookies and it will have a tendency to drive them away. Just another set of problems I see with the decision.

Matt who wishes it was purely random as that would remove any favoritism....

A prediction from 2001 became somewhat true. Yet, FRC goes on.
Maybe one of prediction for 2Champs becoming bad will turn out to be right. FRC will go on anyways, changed but not destroyed.