Time to rein in this thread again. I'll preface this by saying that I haven't been to Championships since 2000 & 2001, which includes not going this year.
This thread was not intended to be a bitter dump for teams that did not like the way alliance selections went. There are a few things to keep in mind here:
- A team has every right to rank and pick teams for their alliance the way they choose
- If you didn't have fun because of not being picked or not making it further, I hope you can get past this quickly in order to truly enjoy the build season and competition experience. I watched all four webcasts (at once) on Saturday and found the matches exciting, yet I can only imagine the energy in the rest of the venue.
- Both times I went to the Championship, my team was not picked to be on an alliance, but I found the event to be exhilarating.
- Remember the regionals? Even if you were not in the elimination rounds there, you have had about 14-17 matches at least this season with your creation out on the field performing. You can have even more matches with a higher probability of elimination play if you to one of the many off-season events.
- Finally, there are 86 teams in a division with ~61 of them being automatic qualifiers from recent achievements. There are only 24 teams per division that get to play in finals alliances, so let's 86 the bitterness.
- EDIT: Just to reemphasize a FIRST mantra: It ain't about no robots doin' nothin'... It's about what happens to the people along the way.
If you find teams in your scouting top ten in any categories that didn't get picked, that would be a good subject for a post here. Please refrain from the second guessing of your own absence in the tournament
.