I am hoping that FTC has a better way of distinguishing its various levels of tournaments this year. Last year, regional events were "Championships" and the big Atlanta event was "The Championship" -- very confusing. In contrast, FLL and FRC seem to have better ways of distinguishing events. The generally accepted terminology seems to be:
FLL: (Non-qualifying locals and) Regionals --> Championships (formerly State events) -- > World Festival
FRC: Regionals --> Nationals (according to Dean, but "World Championship" to others)
Personally, I like the Regional --> State --> National/World model, as it's easily understood by those outside the robotics world.
Another thing that troubles me is that when I went to this link for last year's events:
http://www.usfirst.org/whatsgoingon.aspx
I found that there were no events listed in CA for FTC, even through there were 3 FVC Championship events last year. This gives newcomers the impression that there were no events nearby last year and that there are not likely to be nearby events this year. Is FVC and the foundation it provides for FTC being completely ignored?