2004,
2003,
2002,
2001,
2000.....we've been talking about this since I was 16.
Qualifying for the Championship is an age-old question of FIRST. There will always be someone asking it......and there will always be someone there to give their opinions on it (just as there will always be someone that will mention that their team is or is not qualified...
).
Such is one of the results of being in a dynamic organization such as FIRST: some things are going to change to try to make it easier to deal with all the growth. It might not always be the right decision, but the decision has been made and if it doesn't work we'll have new criteria next year.
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I think, however, it's important to look at the bottleneck here in dealing with the Championship: the competition. The reason why there is championship qualifiers is because we don't have enough pit space, field space, or time to deal with 700+ teams.
What I'm suggesting is that we need to internally view the Championship differently....the competition should no longer be the focus. Though it's a huge chunk of the event, with the inclusion of the FLL Invitational and the FCC (side note: we need a better acronym), the Atlanta event is more a "conference" than a "championship". Externally, we can pump it up all we want as a competition, since that's what seems to drive news...but we know better. The Championship is not always about bringing the robot...it's about learning, experiencing, and celebrating FIRST.