Quote:
Originally Posted by AGPapa
That's a very good point. Looking at the data, the bottom 10% of district teams only had 3 selected out of 22 (teams 193, 3539 and 3663). That's only 13.7%, meanwhile 16.7% of waitlist teams were selected for division playoff matches.
I'm pretty surprised about that, since all waitlist teams from district areas would have fewer district points than the points teams. Either regional waitlist teams are doing well enough to pull up the average or district points aren't doing that a good a job of sending the best teams.
|
Well, speaking from experience... when a team is having a bad year, it might turn down a waitlist spot. On the other hand, when a team is doing well and just misses making it to champs, they're much more willing to accept such a spot.
And then you can consider which teams would apply for waitlist spots. While there are certainly exceptions, it's going to be the better funded teams, as attending champs is a rather expensive proposition. And it'll probably be the more confident teams, those that are confident they can build a decent robot and do well enough at champs to make a trip worthwhile (even if they are realists and realize the schedule or luck in playoffs can work against them).
Now, think about all the regional teams you don't see at champs. Teams that were finalists (although there's less of that now with the wildcards), semifinalists, or quarterfinalists, all of which may be pretty decent - especially when you look at the different relative strengths of regionals. Just take a look at the
2014 Lake Superior regional playoffs for an example - every set except Semifinals 2 went to a third match, with so many close games that any alliance really could have won that event that year.
So while any team can get in off the waitlist, there are enough good teams across FIRST, and enough psychology involved in spending that type of money, to suggest that we'll get some better teams than you might expect from it.