Attending multiple regionals

[Nemo]

If we prevented powerhouse teams from attending multiple regionals, we would also prevent all the other teams from doing it. That is undesirable, even if one thinks it is okay to put limits on the top teams (I don't).

Example: us. This is going to be the first year that Team 967 goes to a second regional, and we are really excited about it. We have been pushing ourselves pretty hard to improve as a team, and going to a second regional is an important piece of that. We felt that we had a shot at winning going into Kansas City, and although we had a great run, we were defeated in the semis. That would be the end of it if we could only go to one regional: we had a good robot, it had a weakness, and we didn't quite get there. But it's not the end, and so we were able to ask ourselves what we need to do to improve. We have been hard at work to shore up our robot's weaknesses (minibot speed + deployment reliability), and now we think we will be stronger than ever at 10000 Lakes. I consider this phase of the season to be a great motivator and a great learning experience - this is when we can take our existing designs and improve them, although there are significant hurdles to doing that. Limited time, no access to the robot, withholding allowance limits, extremely limited time to install and test upgrades in the pits, etc. But it is doable, and if our new minibot deployment is successful, we are going to feel like a million bucks. That experience, hopefully, will be motivational and inspirational to the team, which is more important than taking home hardware.

Attending multiple regional competitions is a crucial part of the path to becoming a really strong team, I think. And we have a lot of work to do if we want to achieve that goal... our experiences at the Championship (via waitlist) have made that pretty clear.

[princessnatalie]

This is interesting, as my team attends two regionals each year. Our 'home' regional, Autodesk Oregon, and then a Seattle Regional.

The Seattle Cascade Regional was first, and we ended up winning. And this question about going to Oregon was raised. I personally almost didnt go on Thursday and Friday because I didnt want to miss school, but ended up going anyway. We went into Oregon to have fun. We also switched up our drive team, giving new people experience and ended up Top 8. Then we decided that we are competeing to bring 2 other teams to St Louis. We picked an entirely different alliance than in Seattle, despite the fact that our partners were at Oregon as well. We ended up winning, and giving two other teams a chance at Nationals, one of those teams being a rookie team.

I dont think it is unfair to compete at two regionals at all. Our team fought for our win, it wasnt handed to us, and the Autodesk Oregon Regional was very very very intense.

[TKM.368]

So... win at Regional #1 and have to cancel all plane fares, hotel reservations, etc for Regional #2? Or show up to Regional #2 and just sit in the stands? Or even throw Regional #1 so that I can play (and get more practice) at Regional #2? Now those seem equally unfair...

(equally unfair - oxymoronic?)

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

1. If a team has the money and student availability, they can participate in up to 6 regionals this year.

It might be theoretically possible to squeeze in attendance at the Israel Regional between weeks 2 and 3, making a total of seven regional competitions. You'd probably not arrive at the week 3 event until rather late on Thursday, though.

[BigJ]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

It might be theoretically possible to squeeze in attendance at the Israel Regional between weeks 2 and 3, making a total of seven regional competitions. You'd probably not arrive at the week 3 event until rather late on Thursday, though.

And you may be building a robot in the pit!

[ErikEdhlund]

I can understand your idea for powerhouse teams not attending more than their home event per year. However, there are quite a few positives by allowing powerhouse teams like 16, 71, 111, 1114 (not including Michigan teams due to their statewide tournaments) to attend more than their home event. There is a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge from powerhouse teams. I know from my experience on WildStang, we share what we can while at events. A few examples were at Midwest regional, we helped 896 rebuild a robot from the ground up and had a student be their coach and lead to them to producing a functioning robot. Powerhouse teams bring a lot of leadership and produce some unique strategies that teams in the future can utilize. I know that it may be unfair to have to go against a team of powerhouses, but there is always a silver lining to every cloud

[Ankit S.]

I do agree with you that powerhouse teams dominate, however I disagree with forcing powerhouses to compete at only their home.

If you forced powerhouses to compete at only one regional, then all the other teams would have to only compete at one regional as well, to make it not look like discrimination. If that happened, then there would be less collaboration that is seen.

My idea is to choose the alliance captain from the second place team and send them to championships. For ex. team X wins San Diego. Two weeks later, they win LA. Team Y was the captain of the other finalist alliance. Give team X's alliance partners and team Y an invitation to champs. Team X already has its invitation from San Diego. In the rare case that 2 or more of team X's alliance have already won as well, team Y's first and second pick would also be given an invitation.

This would allow for more teams to experience the aura of championship, and allow for greater mingling.

Just my thoughts.

[czeke]

Denying or limiting a team from attending multiple regionals, whether it's a powerhouse team, or not, is egregious. These teams enhance the regional, rather than detract from it. What they bring to the table, is usually of tremendous value, from both a design and organizational, point of view. If your team doesn't have the resources, that these teams possess, then learn from them, as to how they do it, and hopefully, with some intense forethought, you can be more clever , in your designs, then they are.

[Racer26]

Originally Posted by BeltSanderRocks

In the rare case that 2 or more of team X's alliance have already won as well...

This is not particularly rare, at least here in Canada. 1114 and 2056 have been winning together in multiple regionals since 2007.

[Ankit S.]

Originally Posted by 1075guy

This is not particularly rare, at least here in Canada. 1114 and 2056 have been winning together in multiple regionals since 2007.

My bad.

Edit: But what do you think of my idea?

[Racer26]

There's no need to change the existing system. When a team that already has a seat at CMP wins another seat, their seat is automatically opened up to the first available team on the wait list.

[Mastonevich]

I want to commend team 2471 for picking two other teams who had not punched their tickets. That has to be one of the top acts of gracious professionalism I have heard of.

There is nothing stopping any team from attending more than one regional. As with anything in life it takes hard work to make it happen. If that is a lesson that FIRST teaches, we should embrace it.

The motto should be how do we get to be like those teams? Not, that is unfair and we should bring them down.

All that said the disparity between the top and bottom seems to be growing. It would not surprise me if FIRST tries to address this in the future.

[B-Bot]

Although power house teams are scarry to face they should be alowed to go to the rest of their regionals for many reasons.
1. they already paid for it and their entitled to go.
2. they contribute help to manny rookie teams.
3. It makes the compititions more chalenging

[davidthefat]

What about an all rookie only regional?

[Clinton Bolinger]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

What about an all rookie only regional?

2008 - Kettering Rookie Regional.

It was the pilot for the Michigan District Structure.

-Clinton-

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