Championship Waiting list

[Mastonevich]

In another thread, somebody mentioned the waiting list for nationals. What is this list? Who is on the list? How do teams get on this list?

[Kevin Ray]

Back when FIRST opened up registration to teams that wished to attend a second or third regional or the nationals, teams signed on at the earliest time allowed (12 noon) and tried to get their choices. Many people (us included) took too long for the page to load and thus were put on the wait list for the particular regional or national competition (in our case, both).
There is a decided advantage to those teams who compete later in the season. Teams competing in the first week only have until Thursday of that week to be selected from the national's wait list. Yet a team who competes in week 5 say, still has their bot crated (or bagged) and thus is still elligible to be added to the list of teams competing at the nationals for 4 additional weeks of regionals.
Additionally, the later the teams' regionals are, the greater their chances for selection are. For each week that passes, more and more openings arise as a result of teams becoming elligible by virtue of winning regionals and/or awards yet not being able to attend due to money issues.
We are only thankful that we won the chairman's award and do not have to rely on the waitlist.

[GaryVoshol]

There are more spots available at the Championships than the number of the teams that qualify for the Championships from regionals and the MI Championship. Therefore during registration, teams may register for the Championship for those open spots. When those open spots are filled, teams that registered are put on the wait list.

As the season progresses, some teams qualify for the Championship more than once. For example, a Hall of Fame team (which has automatic qualification) may also win a regional. A team might win more than one regional, or might win both a regional and a regional Chairman's award. As those duplicate qualifications happen, teams from the wait list are offered spots at the Championship.