Championships: Competition vs. Inspiration

[Eric O]

Championship will always be limited by those pesky real world constraints of time, space and money. I would like to see the problem solved a different way. Instead of having to go to championship to get the experience, bring the experience to teams that didn't qualify, or team members that couldn't attend, or family and friends that want to support their home team. How many people in this world actually get to attend a superbowl in a lifetime? Very few, but most of the population participates via technology (it’s beyond TV at this point) and feels inspired yearly. FIRST needs to continue to follow the sports model and support the fan base. At least they had the webcast on the homepage this year during championship, although getting to the scores was a few layers deep into the site.

In order to put on the most inspirational show, you need competitive teams. The district model is a good step in the right direction because it rewards well rounded teams with bids to the championship. I always thought an interesting twist on the points system would be that teams which did not get to go to the Championship the previous year started with some fraction of their points. This way if you are a team that is getting close every year, but missing qualifying, you get a chance to go. You still have to earn a significant amount of points, but not quite as many as a team that went the previous year.

Overall, my thought is teams should not just be going to get inspired, they should have performed well enough to earn a spot. However, FIRST should do better at showing off these outstanding teams and experience to the world and convincing the rest of the organization (and world) who is not in attendance to be inspired.

To those who have posted they went and were inspired, what part inspired you? Could that inspiration be closely match via a video camera?

-EOB