[billw]

Hi All,

The following may be entirely incorrect (in fact, I hope that it is), but it has come to my attention that this year’s FTC program may use a different selection mechanism for attending the National championship. If my information is correct, FIRST is considering having only the Inspire award winner receive an automatic invite. All alliance winners would enter a lottery at the conclusion of the season.

If this is the case, I foresee several issues:

1. Winning alliance captains from one or more regional tournaments might not be invited to the nationals.

2. The motivation for kids to make their best effort for a regional might be reduced.

3. Winning a regional and then not being able to attend the nationals would be an incredible letdown for many of these kids.

4. Teams would not be able to plan (or fundraise) to go to the nationals until all regional tournaments have been completed and FRST adds an additional delay while they create a lottery.

5. The winning alliance at the Nationals will, in effect, be able to say: “yes, we are the world champions except for the fact that several of the best teams were not given the opportunity to compete.”

Perhaps I am misguided, but to me the use of words such as “tournament” and “championship” indicate a competitive format which narrows down the field of contestants until the best is actually determined. Those words imply that a system is in place which eliminates as many outside influences as possible. They do not call this a “National Get-Together.” They call it a “championship.”

It can already be demonstrated that the system by which alliance captains are chosen could be better correlated with actual ability. This latest piece will just add further randomness into the process—resulting in not a true champion but in a team, that while probably good, would not by traditional competitive assessment be considered the champion.

If space at the nationals is so constrained, why not include only the alliance captains and their second-choice partners (or only the alliance captains of the two teams that reach the regional finals)? Statistically speaking, the third-choice alliance partner is being selected from the middle third of the teams in a 48-team tournament. I am guessing that most of these teams would concede that they were not representative of the best that the regional had to offer. In fact, I am guessing that most would feel very badly if they were selected by lottery to go to the nationals but their alliance captains were not. Perhaps just these teams could be in a lottery.

You could argue that I am being too competitive, and perhaps that is the case, but I also believe that an achievement should be based upon performance not chance.

It is my sincere hope that my information is incorrect or that this new policy is just one of several being considered. In any case, I have posted it here so that others could comment and FIRST could assess the community’s reaction.

--Bill Wiley
Coach, Vexy Things