To extract the meta-data from my above post:
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What things do you look for when deciding if the qualification process is a good or bad method for qualifying for the Championships (beyond "does my team get to go?")?
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Quality of performance, not just of the robot, but of the whole team (and notice that I said
quality of performance,
not quantity of performance). No team should have an inherent advantage because they are rookies, first year teams, or teams that can afford multiple regionals.
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Do you care if the process is entirely performance-based?
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As long as performance is not based solely on robot performance. Teams that embody the spirit of FIRST, who show excellence in any number of categories, from team management, to community outreach, to education, and even to robot performance, should get to go. As it is, the current award system does not satisfactorily achieve this goal.
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Should the process allow every team to get an (occasional?) opportunity to attend, regardless of their performance?
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Yes. I believe that every team meets the above performance criteria to some degree, and should be allowed to go to the championship at some point.
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Should the process limit the number of rookie teams attending, and encourage them to focus on the regional events?
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Frankly, most teams would not be prepared for nationals in their rookie year. However, for those that meet the selection criteria, there should be no bias against them.
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Do you like methods that are based on just the activities of the current year, or should teams be able to "bank" criteria elements from one year to the next?
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That is a tricky issue. On the one hand, teams change drastically from one year to the next, with many students leaving, and many new ones coming in. Team performance can also drastically change. An ideal system would be based only on the current year. However, any such system would give teams very little lead time to organize a trip to nationals, so from a practical point of view, it may not be feasible.
I realize that there is quite possibly no system which meets my criteria, and I know that there are contradictions. However, there is one thing that I want to stress: that
any team that really tries, and puts in extra effort and dedication above and beyond what is needed to simply show up and compete, should get to go to the Championship. The real world may not work that way, but wouldn't it be nice if it did?