Quote:
Originally Posted by Foster
I'm a big fan of getting more for my money, but I'm a bigger fan of getting more robot competition time for the robot team.
We do 2 regionals (one away like FLR, CT, Pittsburgh, Chesapeake, etc. Some place thats a few hour drive for us) and one "home" event, Philadelphia (45 min drive so the families can all come and watch). Cost $10K+overnight stays
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At a regional it appears that "most" teams spend the first day completing their robot and passing inspection. (First regional that they attend in a year, and no disrespect meant to your team). So I'd like to suggest that the teams that hold pre-ship scrimmages also have inspectors. If you pass inspection at one of the pre-events all you need to do is pass weight/dimensions at the regional. Inspectors could make spot/random checks if wanted. But it would cut down on the inspection process and be more of an inducement to be ready to play at the event.
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This is the one thing that I like about the district model over the regional model and that is that you get twice as many games over two separate weekends for the same cost. When you add in the State Championship for those that win, the Michigan System participants have a huge advantage over other Regional winners when they get to Atlanta.
We're a poor team that can only afford 1 regional and so we have 15 games under our belt going into Atlanta this year, where the Michigan teams going into Atlanta have 3 times that many. Practice makes perfect, and also they have had the whole competition period to mature their robot in the pits. We were a first week regional and didn't even get a chance to show our ball looper because all our potential alliance partner were trying to get working robots. We haven't seen our poor lonely robot in 5 weeks now.
Like you said, the first event for a team is usually about finishing up your robot to compete, and by the time there's a state championship the teams there are in their fighting configuration, battle tested. Add in that most of the Michigan teams know each other after seeing each other for so many games and it only takes one of them to seed high enough in a division at Atlanta to lock in alliance partners. Human nature being what it is, I myself would probably pick a team I know and have played with consistently over another robot I have maybe seen in one game at Atlanta. I hear tell that scouting doesn't work that way, but 2 trips to nationals and seeing who gets picked on Saturday tells me different.
So I like the district system for the opportunities and value it brings the teams for the money they pay, but I don't like having to play against those well practiced, pre-set alliances come Nationals time. :-) I would love more games for the same money.