FRC Blogged- District Award Allocations and Kickoff Taping

[Steven Donow]

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...Kickoff-Taping

Folks have asked what the allocations will be for awards at District Championships.

The Districts will have flexibility in how they allocate their awards, within boundaries. This gives Districts the ability to tailor the award package available at their Championships to local conditions – team capacity at their Championship, number of rookie teams in their District, leadership preference, etc – while making sure the meaning of each award does not vary too greatly between Districts.

For the 2014 season, allocation ranges will be as follows:

For Chairman’s Award:

One Chairman’s Award for every 6 to 10 allocated FIRST Championship slots, rounded to the nearest whole number.

In practice, for 2014, this means the New England and Pacific Northwest Districts can select 2 to 4 Chairman’s Award winners, the Mid-Atlantic Robotics District can select 2 or 3, and Michigan can select 3 to 5

For Engineering Inspiration Award:

All Districts, 1 or 2

For Rookie All Star Award:

All Districts, 1 or 2

For FIRST Dean’s List Award:

One FIRST Dean’s List Finalist for every 4 to 6 allocated FIRST Championship slots, rounded to the nearest whole number.

In practice, for 2014, this means the New England and Pacific Northwest Districts can select 4 to 6 FIRST Dean’s List Award Finalists, the Mid-Atlantic Robotics District can select 3 to 5, and Michigan can select 5 to 8

For all other judged awards presented at the District Championship, including the Woodie Flower’s Finalist Award, there will be a single winner.

When Districts have made their decisions regarding award quantities within the ranges above, they will be announcing them.

Kickoff Taping

We taped the segments needed for the Kickoff broadcast that involved the field on Saturday. This was the first time we had a chance to take a look at a fully assembled 2014 season field in person rather than on a display screen or on paper. I thought it looked great. Especially impressive was the...but, I guess I shouldn’t say any more.

As you may remember, a few weeks ago we put out a call for team t-shirts that the FRC staff could wear during the taping. FRC Engineering had the idea for staffers in the videos to wear team t-shirts rather than traditional FIRST or FRC shirts. Response was much greater than we expected! 123 teams sent in shirts for us to wear. I was at the taping only for a few hours on Saturday – and it went all day and in to the evening – but I can’t tell you how many times I heard someone shout ‘Wardrobe!’ meaning it was time for the staffers to change their team shirts to get ready for the next scene.

Many team shirts made the videos – but you’ll have to watch them to find out which ones. Remember, also, that in addition to the main Kickoff broadcast, we tape additional videos that present more detail. Staff were wearing team t-shirts during those as well. If time permits, these will be broadcast right after the main video on Kickoff day, and they should also be available on our YouTube channel later in the day. Whether you sent in team t-shirts or not, watching these additional videos will give you a more in-depth understanding of the 2014 season.

Less than a month until Kickoff! I’m very excited.

Frank

Interesting how they're letting each district choose how many of each award to give.

[Calvin Hartley]

Originally Posted by The one and only increasingly awesome Frank

Especially impressive was the...but, I guess I shouldn’t say any more.

This is obviously a hint. Important parts highlighted in red.

Seriously though, I like the variability allowed in the awards.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Calvin Hartley

This is obviously a hint. Important parts highlighted in red.

Seriously though, I like the variability allowed in the awards.

He's talking about the pyramids, of course

[Calvin Hartley]

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

He's talking about the pyramids, of course

There's three pyramids this year. Three dots, three pyramids. We've figured out the hint, now we can all go sleep for 3 weeks.

[Taylor]

Dean assigns homework at CMP, hardly anybody does it.
Frank mentions sending in shirts for the video, six score teams do it.

[DonRotolo]

Quoted again for truth. Although we don't KNOW how many teams did it.

Originally Posted by Taylor

Dean assigns homework at CMP, hardly anybody does it.
Frank mentions sending in shirts for the video, six score teams do it.

If I were running a district, I would choose as many EI winners as possible, since there is a monetary award as well.

Anyhow, to te obvious game hints:

including the Woodie Flower’s Finalist Award

That incorrect apostrophe is surely a game hint. Coupled to the ellipsis, it is clear to me that there is a grammar element to this year's game, specifically punctuation.

Or maybe it's just a mis-spelling of ellipses, those oblong circle thingies...

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

If I were running a district, I would choose as many EI winners as possible, since there is a monetary award as well.

I thought the NASA award excluded districts last year? Am I wrong, or thinking of something else?

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Q
Or maybe it's just a mis-spelling of ellipses, those oblong circle thingies...

You mean footballs? Clearly, football game piece.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

I thought the NASA award excluded districts last year? Am I wrong, or thinking of something else?

It excluded winners at individual District events, not winners from the overall "District/Region" (it's a matter of phrasing)

[MamaSpoldi]

I for one am very sad to see the reduction in the number of Dean's List Finalists being sent from the Districts as well as the Woodie Flowers Finalist. I know that I will be corrected that it is not about the number of previous regionals that are being replaced. However, last year we would have had 14 Dean's List Finalists heading to Champs from NE regionals and now it is a max of 6... and from 7 Woodie Flowers Finalists down to 1. This is a very large reduction (more than 50%) even if you take into account that mentors and students from outside of NE would/could have won some of those spots in previous years.

I just feel that these awards are about celebrating those among us who are role models. Granted these people do not make choices based on how it will look to an awards committee, they do what they do because they believe in the message of FIRST. Reducing the number of these awards just leaves us with less to celebrate.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by MamaSpoldi

I just feel that these awards are about celebrating those among us who are role models. Granted these people do not make choices based on how it will look to an awards committee, they do what they do because they believe in the message of FIRST. Reducing the number of these awards just leaves us with less to celebrate.

Not necessarily. You can celebrate your students and mentors any day of the week

Keep in mind how difficult judging becomes at the Championship level for these awards. I don't see it as a bad thing to become more selective.

[Alan Anderson]

I can see I'm going to have to adjust my vocabulary. Until now, I thought FIRST was calling the areas running a district model "Regions" -- the Mid-Atlantic Robotics Region, the Pacific Northwest Region, etc. I've been very careful to follow that usage. Now, however, it seems they're being labeled "Districts".

Except I thought that was what they called the smaller areas within a larger region hosting district competitions. I'm confused.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

I can see I'm going to have to adjust my vocabulary. Until now, I thought FIRST was calling the areas running a district model "Regions" -- the Mid-Atlantic Robotics Region, the Pacific Northwest Region, etc. I've been very careful to follow that usage. Now, however, it seems they're being labeled "Districts".

Except I thought that was what they called the smaller areas within a larger region hosting district competitions. I'm confused.

The only time I've ever seen a map actually divided into numbered districts" was a map of MI, and I think was to show how teams are/were divided into "home districts" ie. one they are arbitrarily signed up for. There's been no such division like that in MAR, but the 'first level' of competitions has been referred to as "district events'.

My guess is this is just to further distinguish/seperate the district model from the regional model, so instead of going to "regionals" or "regional championships", you're going to the "district championship"

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

I can see I'm going to have to adjust my vocabulary. Until now, I thought FIRST was calling the areas running a district model "Regions" -- the Mid-Atlantic Robotics Region, the Pacific Northwest Region, etc. I've been very careful to follow that usage. Now, however, it seems they're being labeled "Districts".

Except I thought that was what they called the smaller areas within a larger region hosting district competitions. I'm confused.

In PNW we consider ourselves the Pacific Northwest District. The qualifying events district events and the big event District Championships of DCMP. In PNW there is no geographic divisions within the District any team is allowed to register for any event, until of course slots are filled. Of course most teams registered for the closest event as one of their two. I've heard that one of the reasons for the fiM home events was to determine which event they were eligible to present for Chairman's, of course now teams are able to present for Chairman's at all events they attend whether District or Regional.

[Nathan Streeter]

I'm glad FIRST gave some sort of directive on this... but also think it's real cool that they gave individual districts some leeway too.

For New England, I'd personally say 3 Chairmans', 2 EI, 2 RAS, 6 Dean's List.

Have the award qualifications to Championship been announced/standardized? I apologize if I'm failing to remember a piece about this from the Standardized District Point System announcement. Basically, do the Chairmans', EI, and RAS winners at DCMP all auto-bid to CMP? Also, do the DCMP Winners also get an auto-bid?

I would agree with auto-bidding the three FIRST culture awards, but I am personally not in favor of auto-bidding the DCMP Winners... If they don't get enough points by winning DCMP, they probably shouldn't be going (last year in Michigan the lowest-place team to qualify for CMP by points had 133 points. Winning DCMP gives 90.) One could argue this makes it a fairly irrelevant point... I'd have to quietly agree and sit down. :-)

Originally Posted by MamaSpoldi

I for one am very sad to see the reduction in the number of Dean's List Finalists being sent from the Districts as well as the Woodie Flowers Finalist. ... This is a very large reduction (more than 50%) even if you take into account that mentors and students from outside of NE would/could have won some of those spots in previous years.

While I do agree that it feels wrong to send so many fewer DL or WF finalists, they are approximately in line with the other awards... 1 Chairmans', 1 EI, 1 RAS, 2 DL, and 1 WF would go from each Regional before. Now that is scaled up by 2-4 from Regionals to DCMP awards. Except WF... this little part surprises me personally and I do agree that we should be able to send 2-3 Woodie Flowers' Finalists. That said, I do agree with wanting to send only 50% as many award winners to CMP... I'm sure the pool of candidates at CMP is tremendous! Whittling it down a bit more beforehand has got to be helpful from a CMP-standpoint.

Originally Posted by MamaSpoldi

I just feel that these awards are about celebrating those among us who are role models. Granted these people do not make choices based on how it will look to an awards committee, they do what they do because they believe in the message of FIRST. Reducing the number of these awards just leaves us with less to celebrate.

It is about celebrating the role models around us... and I had this same objection until I tried thinking about it in more dimensions. I think this celebratory aspect is actually being improved by the advent of districts... In New England there will now be 9 Chairmans, 9 EI, 9 RAS, 18 DL, and 9 WF winners... at the District event level. This pool will get paired down a bit more at DCMP before joining an enormous pool of applicants at CMP that are paired down even more. FIRST went from 2 tiers of awards to 3 tiers. We're upset that the "DCMP-tier" is smaller than the "Regional-tier," when they've also made the lowest tier bigger. All-in-all I think this is better... More people will win awards, then there will be another level of distinction (winning at DCMP), before the FIRST-wide winners are determined.

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

Have the award qualifications to Championship been announced/standardized? I apologize if I'm failing to remember a piece about this from the Standardized District Point System announcement. Basically, do the Chairmans', EI, and RAS winners at DCMP all auto-bid to CMP? Also, do the DCMP Winners also get an auto-bid?

This is actually covered in the Standard Points Document:

Chairman’s Award winning Teams at the District event level get automatic byes to the District Championship, where they will compete both with their robots and for the District Championship Chairman’s Awards. Winning a District Championship Chairman’s Award will earn the Team a slot at the FIRST Championship regardless of their final rank in their district.

Engineering Inspiration and Rookie All-Star Award winners at the District event level will compete at the District Championship level for those specific awards, even if they do not rank high enough to compete with their robots.
Winning one of these awards at the District Championship will also earn them a slot at the FIRST Championship regardless of their final rank in their districts.