[Donut]

I can think of another factor driving the open registration system; travel planning. If all teams had to win a regional event or award at a regional to attend the Championship, I think you would see ALOT of teams that could never go to the Championship, because they need to setup all the travel arrangements very early on (mine would have severe problems; our district wants out of state travel approval a year in advance, and paying for things through a purchase order takes an average of 6 weeks to do, meaning it's incredibly difficult, and often impossible, to do last minute travel things). Excluding teams that have schools with strange and confusing travel rules doesn't seem too fair either.

I think FIRST should keep some kind of open registration system, but when it starts to be time to reduce those numbers, they may have to implement the tier system a little more heavily (for example, no team that went the previous year gets in on the tier system, or just keep the current system but cut the open spots by close to half).