All District FIRST?

[Zebra_Fact_Man]

Originally Posted by PVCpirate

To your first point, I would say that the second event is a game changer. For a team who usually goes to 1 regional, if they can't get their robot figured out by Friday *POOF* there goes the whole season. If the same team is in a district model, sure, the first district event may go the way of the regional. However, they now have a window of time to work in their own shop to improve the bot for their second event, and hopefully have a good performance, maybe even qualifying for their District championship. I think that is much more inspiring than having a robot that never does what it was meant to do and then going home...

I would like to see the statistic on the number of teams who didn't participate in the elimination rounds during their 1st district but still made it to the State Championship, over the past few seasons. I can't think of any off of the top of my head. As the # of teams increase, and the # of St. champ. spots being static, it becomes increasingly difficult to make it to the big(ger) dance, almost to the point where a bad 1st district puts achieving states out of reach [yes mathematically still possible since 75(theoretical max pts per district) > 57(FiM cutoff this year) but I've never seen a team perform a 45+pt district improvement].

Even without qualifying for states, having the ability to improve and be competitive IS a game changer for weaker teams that turns an abysmal season into an inspiring season.