[Herodotus]

I'm going to have to throw in a good word for this new arrangement as well. I saw almost nothing different at the Kettering district today from a normal regional, other than slightly fewer teams (though more than some regionals still). The biggest change is having 12 seeding matches, it's fantastic! At the end of the day we said to the team , "we've only had 8 matches so far." We never thought it possible to use the words "only" and "eight matches" in one sentence.

Furthermore, because there are more matches I feel like the seeding is far more reflective of the overall quality of the team. One fluke match is not going to have as big an impact with 12 matches to play. My only question about the system is how well it will expand into other areas. I do hope the districts become more open so we can see some friendly faces from around the country. If nothing else, they need to find a way to keep the cost where it is now, even if the competition structure remains as open ended as current regionals.

On a side note I am very happy with the Kettering competition technically speaking as well. There were very few field faults.