Championship 2014 Proposal

[lemiant]

Another thread got me thinking about how we could improve the championship event, and below is what I would propose when we next change venues:

The Championship has pretty much expanded beyond the point where it comfortably fits in one dome, we would be better served in a convention center style venue (The Los Angeles Convention Center and the The Staples Center or something similar) This would be the schedule:

Wednesday - Practice matches and the first qualification matches in 8 divisions 60 team divisions, in the exhibition halls.
Thursday - More Qualification Matches
Friday - Qualification Matches, Alliance Selections, Division Elimination Matches and Awards.
Saturday - Now we get to the fun part. At this point, we move everyone into the Staples Centre for the "Einstein" Division. All the teams from each winning alliance and the captains of each finalist alliance are part of this 32 team division. They play a handful of round-robin style matches in this divisions. Each team's QS is the sum of the points earned in the round robin with 1 additional QS point for each win that they achieved in their divisions (this helps sort the rankings and also handicaps the finalist team). Then Alliance selections and Eliminations for the World Championship .

There are a number of reasons that I believe this would be a superior system:

• We now include an incredible 480 teams at worlds.
• Everyone gets more qualification matches
• We end with the absolute best talent in the world winning. (No more getting stuck in the wrong division).
• Saturday provides an awesome show that is watchable to a wide audience. Because the level of play is incredible and the number of teams is reasonable to follow.

Hopefully this inspires some interesting discussion,

- Alex

[XaulZan11]

I think there are a lot of great ideas here. I'm not sure how many of our students or mentors could take an entire week off a school or work to attend, though. Most of us are already feeling the effects of taking three days off for this years championship.

[Koko Ed]

Personally all I want is FIRST to adopt the Battlecry model and have 16 alliances battling all Saturday long (with full individual awards ceremonies afterwards for each division) til the survivors settle it on Einstein in the early evening.

[DominickC]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Personally all I want is FIRST to adopt the Battlecry model and have 16 alliances battling all Saturday long (with full individual awards ceremonies afterwards for each division) til the survivors settle it on Einstein in the early evening.

THIS!

[lemiant]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

I think there are a lot of great ideas here. I'm not sure how many of our students or mentors could take an entire week off a school or work to attend, though. Most of us are already feeling the effects of taking three days off for this years championship.

Since this seems to concern a number of people, I have condensed it to three days.

[1986titans]

The Astrodome has been closed for a few years, so it's really just one stadium now.

[Lil' Lavery]

The 2003 FIRST Championship was held in Reliant Park. I don't think many miss the walk to the field.

[Jacob Paikoff]

I definitely think your on the right track. Even if we just increased the number of division to 8 with 70 teams each and continued with the same format each team would get more matches, approximately 12 compared to the 10 now. Einstein would then become an 8 team tournament to decide the champion.

To facilitate the expansion of Championship from ~360 to 560 teams the current World Championship would have to just become the FRC World Championship with FLL and FTC either moving to earlier in the week or more likely to their own event earlier in the year.

We should still be able to host it at the EJD in St. Louis

[JustinRueb1891]

Originally Posted by Jacob Paikoff

To facilitate the expansion of Championship from ~360 to 560 teams the current World Championship would have to just become the FRC World Championship with FLL and FTC either moving to earlier in the week or more likely to their own event earlier in the year.

I really like the idea of moving FLL and FTC to before or after the FRC championships. This allows for more space to be used in the same venue to create a larger FRC championship.

[tim-tim]

I like the idea of moving the FLL and FTC events because some of our best students are on our FTC teams as well.

I"m just curious: How many of you are actually serious about finding a great new proposal, and going into action to make it happen? If anyone can go from idea to final creation, it's FIRSTers. I love all the ideas so far, and would be willing to help push any one of them (Go champs in Las Vegas!) if people were serious about it.

[Dancin103]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

The 2003 FIRST Championship was held in Reliant Park. I don't think many miss the walk to the field.

I was glad someone else said it! Championships in this place was a mess and that's all I'm going to say.

[lemiant]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

The 2003 FIRST Championship was held in Reliant Park. I don't think many miss the walk to the field.

Originally Posted by 1986titans

The Astrodome has been closed for a few years, so it's really just one stadium now.

Perhaps a convention center would be a better fit. (I have changed the original proposal to use the LA Convention Center, and the Staples Center for finals.)

[Dancin103]

The reasons the most recent set of Championships have been where they were is because they are, relatively, centrally located for all teams. If Championships were in LA, then >70% of teams would incur costs of flights that are astronomical. Finding the best location for any type of Championship for this program is difficult.

[pwnageNick]

The reasons the most recent set of Championships have been where they were is because they are, relatively, centrally located for all teams. If Championships were in LA, then >70% of teams would incur costs of flights that are astronomical. Finding the best location for any type of Championship for this program is difficult.

McCormick Convention Center followed by United Center (Madhouse on Madison) in Chicago. Has an international airport (O'Hare) and is centrally located in the US.

-Nick