[waialua359]

Originally Posted by nuclearnerd

Has this been suggested already?

Why the heck can't we submit a ranked list, and have the machine choose who gets where based on their chosen priority and a random draw? You could even do it in multiple draws if you want to give teams the chance to adjust their second decision based on the results of their first result. We already do this for FIRST choice, and it works perfectly well.

What use is forcing people to all click refresh at the same time when we already have an alternative system that is easier on mentors' time and server load?

I have been vocal in the past about not having to click the fastest to get the event we want.
However, I am not sure submitting a ranked list is what I would want either.
Getting an event you want involves so much preparation and planning weeks in advance and afterwards. It can also be quite costly not getting the event you want, especially for a team like us having to fly to events. If we sign up for an East Coast event Week 1, our next event choice priority would be to find something else as close as possible.
Someone from our team asked why not do San Francisco Week 3 next? Biggest hurdle is an extra 3-4k shipping cost to get it there.
FIRST donates 2 airbills per year to us. We use it to get our robot to the US mainland, and then back to Hawaii for our event later during competition season.