The District System

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

I'm not sure I buy the idea that this is going to save all teams money. The new and smaller teams are going to get more bang for their buck. I get that. What about the teams that go to Worlds? It's going to cost them more than it does now. Realistically, you can get to worlds with $9k in registration fees. With this new system, $9k will only get you to the State Champs. I'm guessing another $5k would be needed to pay for Worlds. This will increase the costs of teams going to worlds over the current system.

Another question: If you won Chairman's or EI at the district level, are you allowed to compete on the field with your robot at the state level? Will the tradition of having RCA winners on the field at Worlds change in this new model?

Well, generally, (at least in MAR), there are grants available for teams from the region committee, and, from Jim Zondag's (amazing) FiM whitepaper, an effort was made to make MSC free for teams. With the system being more widespread, FIRST could possibly allow it in the future.


Also, is that question about what happens currently? In both MAR and FiM, Chairmans autoqualifies you for region/state championships, but EI does not. Teams that win EI but don't make it to region/states do make an EI presentation to judges, however, and can still win it(as evident by 321 winning it at MAR Champs this year)