Gaah! Nothing for the animation people!

[stevek]

I agree that there should be some consideration here for the Championship Qualifying points.

The issue is that not all awards at the Regionals qualify. Like spirit and some of the other team voted awards. The way they set this up was to have the Students from the Animation teams vote for each other's animation. Since its not a "Judge-given Award" they probably figure their's not enough weight to the validity of the award. Personally I think if they want to show the importance of this aspect of technology, they need to give the some credit to the winners.

The big question is- Does the National Winner get points to count towards next year? (assuming they dont change the rules). If so then they may say that the regional awards simply narow down the field so that the national judges dont have to view 600 animations and only 60 or 80- however many 3x(all regionals) adds up to.

As far as not being at the championships- If they didnt institute this system and the animations only got awarded at the championships, you'd be on the sideline as well- and the two runner-ups that dont win the regionals would not get any points (if the winner did) yet they have an equal shot of winning the competition when the professional look at the animations.

Good luck this year and keep you chin up. I think the changes we are seeing this year are a direct link to the dialogue we had after last years championships. Hope you all look at this as progress (even with the earlier deadline) and we must continue to allow our voice to be heard. And maybe some day FIRST will think that Computers are part of TECHNOLOGY as well!