[kwotremb]

Originally Posted by Jim Zondag

To me the most tragic thing about shipping/bagging is the fact that it prevents teams from self-promoting effectively precisely when we have the best opportunity to do so. You build hype BEFORE the big game, not AFTER. We are Robotics teams, and showing people our robots is the single best way to fulfill Dean's homework assignement and get outsiders to our events.
Teams are their own best advocates, by taking away the robots, FIRST takes away our best promotional tool. If Dean wants us to complete his homework, then he should eliminate these obsolete rules to allow us to do this effectively.

I think this is one of the better reasons I have heard to not have a ship/bag-tag date. This would work really well for those teams that made it to championships but need a few more dollars to get there. They can bring their robot around to local companies and be able to show them their robot itself. Without this all you can do is show them pictures, but having a robot there would make it easier to get them as a sponsor. Personally I can see positives to both sides.

As far as districts go I do hope they do this nation wide. It is a good way to get out and be able to play a lot of matches/events. Like many it will depend on how they split up the nation. Overall I think natural geography rather than state lines should play more of a role into where teams land. I dont think teams should be able to change the district they compete in, but allowing them to play in a 3rd event outside of there district if theres room would be a decent idea. Hope they do it and curious to see where the lines end up. Sounded like last year this would probably happen after the competition this year.