Qualifying for CMP in the future

[artdutra04]

Not qualifying the third alliance partner for championships? Absolutely horrible idea. It's the alliance that wins a Regional, not an individual team.

Not counting RCA, EI, or RAS for qualifying? Again, absolutely horrible idea. These are the awards that recognize teams who are achieving the actual goals of FIRST.

So what do we do? A year or two ago I had a long discussion with my father about this, and basically what came up with as a solution was similar to the Michigan district model, but without the "walled off enclave" of not allowing teams to travel around. So here's our idea:

The new model of FRC competition structuring would have three tiers, Tier 1 events are "District" level events with maximum of 30-40 teams, Tier 2 events are "Regional" events with 50-70 teams, and the Tier 3 event is the Championship.

Your initial registration of $5000 can be used to apply to two Tier 1 events or one Tier 2 event. Tier 1 events are held in Weeks 0-4, and are all Bag-N-Tag. Tier 2 events are held in Weeks 3-6. Using a points-based system similar to Michigan, winning various awards at the Tier 1 events qualifies you for a spot at a Tier 2 event. Additional Tier 1 events cost $2500 to register, and additional Tier 2 events cost $4000 to register.

Eligibility to play at Championships is only available to those who win one of the six traditional spots at Tier 2 events (or have automatic entry, or won a lottery spot back in open registration in the fall).

What this allows is for:

• The "one regional and out" teams can now attend two smaller events for the price of one.
• Teams who like "traditional" regionals have the option to only register for Tier 2 events.
• This reduces the number of events giving berths to the Championship.
• This eliminates all the problems that would arise would a "let's draw an arbitrary invisible line on a map to decide what events you can and can't attend" if the Michigan district model was exactly cloned elsewhere. There are always going to be teams near the border who get screwed, and I've never liked the "no outsiders" rule.