New District Events for 2013?

[P.J.]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

Although it seems to be against what others are saying on this thread, I for one don't really want a district system for California. It seems to me like it would just make it a lot harder to get to Championships, and make us miss a lot more days of school (two/three district events, district champs, and then real Championships).

Emphasis mine.

I'm not gonna go into the whole speech here, it's been done in lots of other places, but a District system actually makes it EASIER to get to Champs, because it isn't just the winners of the regionals, its the top 18 (or whatever) teams in the state by points.

And sorry for posting twice so soon after each other, but I didn't read through this whole thread before I threw in my first comment.

[cgmv123]

Aargh, If there's a district event in Madison, we'd have to host it. Hosting Lego League is bad enough...

[JimWright949]

Here is what in my opinion is the PNW district should be:



There are 170 teams in this section of the world. I included Turkey in this regional since most of the Turkish teams attend the Seattle Regional and I did not want to exclude them.

I was thinking the district motto may be 'Yep most of us can see Russia from here'

[SamMullen]

Originally Posted by JimWright949

Here is what in my opinion is the PNW district should be:



There are 170 teams in this section of the world. I included Turkey in this regional since most of the Turkish teams attend the Seattle Regional and I did not want to exclude them.

I was thinking the district motto may be 'Yep most of us can see Russia from here'

I think that as soon as the PNW goes to a district model, most (if not all) of the Turkish teams will go to the Midwest regional, where if I remember correctly one of the four Turkish teams goes already.

[Nemo]

Related to teams caught between districts:

We're in Iowa (only 4 teams in our state), and I'd love to see a district system near us, as long as we get an opportunity to join it. I don't see how being forced to travel would be a strike against districts, because we already travel a decent distance to any event we attend. I'd be thrilled with a district system for the simple reason that we'd get an extra event for the same registration cost.

[Racer26]

Also, I spoke with Mark Breadner (CMP WFA Winner and Regional Director for FIRST Robotics Canada) at the Montreal Regional briefly about Canada moving to a district system, and was told that its at the region's discretion, and likely coming soon but likely not for 2013.

I would expect a Canadian district system for the 2014 or 2015 season.

FIRST has been trying to figure out how to restructure things to solve the overcrowding CMP issue. Bottom line is one of two things. We either have to qualify less teams to CMP, or we have to increase capacity at CMP. This year, based on my count of the events, if every team that earned a slot went, there would be only about 25 slots (based on a capacity of 360) left for open registration. At the rate we're adding regionals now, that number is shrinking fast. I think there is probably no more room with whatever new regionals start for 2013. HQ has to do something. If you look at a graph of the growth rate, we're growing faster than ever.

Moving the entire program (or at least most of it, only leaving 'traditional' regionals where there's not enough density to pull off a district model) to a district model could be done in such a way to control how many go to CMP, or it could be used to introduce a split CMP system or something, where regions in the east qualify to a FRC East Championship and regions in the west qualify to a FRC West Championship, and then those qualify to CMP.

[bduddy]

Originally Posted by P.J.

Emphasis mine.

I'm not gonna go into the whole speech here, it's been done in lots of other places, but a District system actually makes it EASIER to get to Champs, because it isn't just the winners of the regionals, its the top 18 (or whatever) teams in the state by points.

And sorry for posting twice so soon after each other, but I didn't read through this whole thread before I threw in my first comment.

It makes it easier for the "best" teams to consistently go to Championships, but I suspect that it makes it a lot harder for teams like mine (which has never been to Championships before, and is going this year by virtue of winning a EI award) to ever go.