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Originally Posted by skippy178
What is the feeling about teams who compete at their "home" regional and then go on to compete at other regionals (some nearby, and others far away) ?
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If they feel that it's the best use of their money, let 'em run.
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FIRST espouses "gracious professionalism", yet as I listened to the Championship webcast, I was amazed at the number of top teams who had won multiple awards at several regionals leading to Atlanta.
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Part of gracious professionalism is professionalism. I would be severely disappointed in my team if we didn't give it all we had at every competition we attended.
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Some rookie teams struggle just to field a robot, yet there are veteran teams who are well-resourced and with deep pockets, who are travelling the countryside and beating the local talent on their home turf. What does this really say about the FIRST competition system ?
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Ignoring the rookie and veteran labels used, exactly that: there are teams that struggle to field a robot and deep-pocketed teams. At no point has FIRST said either is a bad thing, so long as there is inspiration afoot.
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Does this REALLY encourage new teams to come back again next year when the out-of-towners take all the prestigious awards, and deny the locals a chance to go to Atlanta ?
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Yes. In the words of legendary professional wrestler Ric Flair, "to be the man, you gotta
beat the man."
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The more I think about this, the more I keep wishing for FIRST to take some proactive steps to limit teams to entering their "home" regional event (the closest within their region, or if two are equally close, then they must nominate one as the home event) to qualify for Atlanta, and if they enter other "away" regionals, then they can compete, but are not eligible for moving into the elimination rounds, and that goes to the local teams instead.
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Which, in effect, undermines the purpose of the qualification rounds. Consider 2237 at Palmetto, the #2 seed. Do we toss them out of the elimination rounds because they competed at Pittsburgh as well? What would a spectator who isn't as versed in the competition think? What would that do for teams that choose to travel to expand their horizons?
Instead of holding the top teams down, let's bring the bottom teams up. (And if you talk to those top teams, many of them are making great strides to do so!)