Proposal: A New Way to Run FIRST Choice

[JohnChristensen]

Yesterday was a mess for many teams including mine. Ultimately AndyMark was very helpful and made good on their mistake (shipping weight error on the window motors). However, for many other teams, the problems were not fixed to the same level as mine. This lead to a long rethinking of FIRST Choice.

Currently, unless a teams main or alt contact is ready and waiting at 12 PM EST for the opening, they will lose out on the best parts. Since these individuals are always adults, it can be assumed they have jobs to do elsewhere at that time. This disadvantages them significantly. The other issue is lack of quantity limits this year on the most valuable items (Talons, Classmates, Sidecars).

After thinking about this, I believe FIRST should implement a ranked choice draft. Basically, FIRST would release the point costs for all items and the credits per team about a month in advance. Teams would then have about three weeks to submit a ranked list of choices to FIRST. This list might look this for my team:

1. cRio
2. Sidecar
3. FESTO Valve
4. FESTO Valve
5. Talon
6. Left Window Motor
etc.

With these lists in hand FIRST would then do a random draft order. Each round every team would get the next highest item on their list that they have the credits to afford. In my case, since there were 30 sidecars this year, I might not get one in the second round, so FIRST would give my team a FESTO Valve (third on my list). The draft would end when all teams list were empty, or all teams credits were gone, or all the parts were gone.

Teams would be allowed to submit list for any number of credits. You could go way over the amount of credits given to make sure you participate late into the draft, or you could only submit for a few items to save credits for later. After the draft is complete, FIRST can then open up the remaining items and credits for purchases at a predetermined time (like Kickoff, when game pieces are available).

I think this would lessen the impact on all teams when things go wrong. It would also eliminate the need for this crazy mad dash to the parts.

John