Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Sperber
WHAT WE KNOW
* Something called the FIRST Festival of Champions is scheduled to occur July 28-29 in New Hampshire.
* The Chairman's and Inspire Award winning teams from both Championship events will have "important roles and places of honor."
* It will include the winning FTC and FRC alliances from both Championship events. And that they will meet "in competition" on July 29th.
WHAT WE DON'T KNOW
* What role the Chairman's and Inspire Award winners will play
* What "competition" the FTC and FRC alliances will compete it. One can assume it will be the same STEAMworks game we will first see on Saturday, but the truth is we don't know...
What I know from many years in FIRST is to never assume, and always watch for curveballs.
WHAT IF... the "competition" included a brand new game, in which the alliances have to build a brand new robot in the hours leading up to the competition, and it was all live-streamed. We just don't know (yet).
Let's collectively step back. Take a deep breath. Focus on what is immediately in front of us (remember what happens this Saturday?). And patiently wait for more information from FIRST.
Oh... and congratulations FIRST, for launching the biggest shinny object of distraction just days before FRC kick-off. 
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I did notice that "Steamworks" or any implication that the competition would be a championship for that year's game was conspicuous by its absence.
There are all sorts of tradeoffs about how to take 3000+ teams and whittle them down to "a championship". What I like about the announcement is that it creates some sort of defining moment, when the winners get together to be crowned champion. There shouldn't be any pretense that our current system somehow determines the "best robot" or "best team". There's just too much chance in the system, and that is by design. If the final competition required teams to build or modify robots on the spot, wouldn't that be cool? Oh, and no mentors allowed...