Quote:
Originally Posted by blaxbb
I really hate to try to break up this kind and sincere debate, but...
This question was asked in the survey from FIRST about future regional setups, so FIRST is definitely thinking about changing things up.
fuzzy1718 brings up some valid points and the people arguing against him also have some valid points.
In my opinion FIRST needs to maintain the open community that it has now, but in order to draw in more schools should make the competitions more local. (similar to highschool sports, state champs )
What if FIRST created both regional competitions and open competitions.
Regional competitions would be locked as per the name "Regional." This would be the event you would be placed in when you register. The winning alliance (along with chairmans, EI, etc.) would qualify for Championships. This event will crown a specific regional title for the country/ region / state / city / whatever the division may be.
Open Events would be more like regionals today. Open Registration keeps the community of FIRST, and possibly creating more competitive events that many crave before championships.
Within 10 years FIRST won't be able to maintain the structure of the regional events. With 3 - 4 thousand teams, many teams will be forced away from local events which would put off someone looking to start a team.
I'm curious what the others think about this. ( new teams, old teams, red teams, blue teams, long standing mentors, new students) |
I don't see FIRST ever getting to the 3-4,000 team level. The economy won't support that many teams. It's already a major struggle for most teams to gather funding.
I think FIRST should stop focusing on expanding FRC, and focus on making FRC it's crown jewel. FTC should be the avenue for expansion. It's simply not realistic for FIRST to expect every school to have a FRC team. Nor could their current infrastructure handle 4,000 teams. They would need 4 times the current amount of events (or 2 fields per event and 2x the events). Either way, you need 4x the volunteers, plus more paid FIRST staff.
At some point they will probably have to either introduce super regionals, or start giving only the winning alliance captain, and the first pick automatic bids to champs (similar to FTC, currently). Or get rid of FLL and FTC at the Championship, and have a FRC only event.
FIRST also has to decide if they want the Championship to be a showcase of their most competitive teams, or a social gathering. To a large extent, this will determine what their possible choices are.
To be honest, I think the odds are better that FIRST will be a shell of it's former self in 10 years, than having 4,000 teams.