Quote:
Originally Posted by PAR_WIG1350
Since a 4-level system has issues, perhaps the DCMP level could be dropped and the top n(%) of teams from each district (and maybe the winners of any remaining regionals) could immediately advance to the super-regional level.
They could keep the proposed team exchange program to add variety to the pool at each super-regional. International teams would likely still be competing in a regional-like system, and FIRST could try to distribute them evenly amongst the super-regionals. I think the elements are there to make each super-regional sufficiently CMP-like to achieve FIRST's goals. I also think it could easily be achieved within a decade.
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From the standpoint of reducing the costs and numbers of levels, this makes perfect sense. However, from the standpoint of FIRST's expressed goal of providing a "CMP Experience" to each team every four teams, it would be a step backwards.
As it turns out, in our fourth year, 3946 got that "CMP experience", through being the second-round selection of the #2 seeded alliance at a regional, and helping that alliance to regional championship (they wouldn't have made it without us, for several reasons). There was a LOT of great stuff going on all around St. Louis - great spirit, maker fairs, a great feat of engineering a few minute's walk away, and of course Dean's homework. Still, the key point for us for this to be a "CMP experience" was being at Karthik's live presentation. KARTHIK's. LIVE. Presentation. Without that, or an equally inspirational event (not impossible, but certainly in short supply), no event will provide that same inspiration as our trip to CMP in 2015. I think and hope that this presentation changed our team (and possibly the two rookie teams we mentored for 2016) for several years to come. Unfortunately, it appears that only one of our 25 2015 CMP attendees will be a team member in 2017, and that in six years as a team (including 2017), we shall have exactly two four-year veterans; none of our three year veterans (including my son and daughter, and another for whom our high school constitutes the family business -- whose grandparent, parent, and sibling are all on staff or faculty) intend to continue on the team for their senior year. If we won a trip to CMP (or split/quartered CMP) every four years, we will at best catch half of our members, though probably not that many.