Quote:
Originally posted by M. Krass
The qualification criteria have placed a bias upon a robot's performance, making it valuable, but still offer opportunities for team's to qualify, irrespective of their machine's capability.
Question of the Week 6-01-03: Have the new qualification criteria "raised the bar" in The Championship Event? Has the event become more competitive as a result of its admission of only certain teams, or are there adequate procedures in place to ensure that winning isn't paramount to a team's ability to compete successfully at the Championship Event?
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The qualification has NOT raised the bar. All it has done is make it harder for teams to get to the Nationals. The competition is still the same.
What the process DID do is make it impossible for those teams who did qualify during the last weeks of the season actually get to the event. It is nearly impossible to arrange a major trip for a whole team in a few weeks let alone the 4 days given the last week's winners this year.
ALL teams should go to the Nationals. It is a prime motivator for the kids to work on their teams. It is a lot more than just a robot contest. And I thought that that was a big part of what FIRST is all about- motivation. The challenge to qualify to be there should be the ability to pull together as a team and raise the extensive funds needed to get there.
So- in closing- did the qualification process mean that the best robots actually got to the Nationals? No way. A lot from the end of the season spent their time in crates (some damaged) on the way home from the last week of regionals.
WC
