[FTC]: FTC Super-Regionals

[Scott_4140]

Basically this comes down to planning. If you believe your team has a reasonable chance of qualifying for your Super-Regional, you should be fundraising for that throughout the season. The same thing applies for the World Championships.

There will be teams that are totally surprised that they qualify. Rookie teams don't know what level of competition to expect. They may end up in the winning alliance and earn a slot at their Super-Regional. They're probably not going to advance to the World Championships. I don't believe there will be very many teams that get surprised twice.

Transportation and lodging at the super regionals shouldn't be killers for teams. Most teams live within driving distance. The ones that are farther out will have the hardest time.

Work with your Affiliate Partners now to find ways to minimize this impact. Maybe help them recruit a new sponsor to help fund teams to the next level. Or focus on the hardship cases. Or set up a surcharge at your state level to help pay down some of these costs. Get involved. Don't wait for someone else to solve the problem.

For Champs, you may need to plan ahead and reserve rooms and flights early. Cancel if you don't make the cut. It's a much smaller hit than paying the last minute prices. None of these problems are insurmountable.

World Championships are not going to get much larger for FTC. They may never get larger. We absolutely don't want to get into the situation that FLL is in. Super-Regionals are the most practical solution they could come up with. Maybe as the program continues to grow, the number of Super-Regionals may increase. This would further reduce advancing teams costs as everything gets closer.

We're victims of our own success.

[jweiland1]

I believe that the Superregionals will have 72 teams each-so many more teams(288 vs 120) will get a chance to attend a "big tournament". Approximately 2-5 teams will advance from each state championship and something like 20 teams advance from the super regionals to Worlds.

[Scott_4140]

Yes, each Super Regional will have 72 teams. 20-25 will advance from each Super Regional to the World Championships. I don't know if the same number will advance from each of the four Super Regionals or if it will be apportioned based on the number of teams in each Super Region.

International Affiliate Partner Championship tournaments will make up the remainder of the 128 teams at the World Championships. I'd guess they'll account for about 40 slots this year, given past international growth.

The number of teams advancing from each Affiliate Partner to the Super Regional will be determined by each Super Regional planning committee. Each Affiliate Partner Championship tournament is guaranteed to send at least 2 teams. The balance will be apportioned by the committee.

The North Regional will apportion the balance based on number of teams in each state. So a state like Iowa could send 15 team. A state like West Virginia could only send 3 or 4. Average will be 6 to 8 teams depending how many active Affiliate Partners there are in your Super Region.

Still lots of details to work out.

[Mr. 1033]

I'm both excited and not thrilled about this.

It's great in the sense that teams get "more plays". Hearing numbers like 10-13 from States move on to the Super Regional instead of 2 is music to my ears and hopefully increases the competitiveness of Worlds etc as well.

From a coaching stand point.... it's another weekend from FRC that will be used for the super regional and we now have travel expenses and another registration.

There's an opportunity cost but all in all....at this point I'm ready for it.

[Nemo]

I think Iowa benefits more than anybody. This year we got two spots to Worlds out of 130+ teams, which made us the most underrepresented area anywhere. Having the Super Regional in our state will be fantastic.

I think it will be much easier to advance to Worlds now, because something like 1/4 of the teams from state will advance, then something like 1/4 of the teams from Super Regionals will go to Worlds. That's way less random than 2 out of 48, so anybody who brings a really solid team and robot is going to have a great chance of advancing. The way it has been in Iowa the past few years, any given team, no matter how good, only ever had a random chance of winning as the captain of the first alliance with only 5-6 qualifier matches. The Inspire Award isn't random, but that has gone to FTC 3550 (Beta) every year I've been involved (won at Worlds this year).

Qualifying the entire winning alliance is such a huge improvement. I'm very glad to see that. Travel expenses and time are the drawbacks, but I think the super regional system comes out ahead on balance.

[CENTURION]

Originally Posted by John_1102

1. The Ability for deserving teams to compete more at a higher level.
We all know there are FTC teams that travel out of state and beyond their own state championship to gain experience and to try for last chance tickets at the world championship. However, it has been the experience of the teams within those states that out of state teams usually that have competed 2-3 times before come in and "clean the floor" with the in state teams, leaving them with no ability to compete at a higher level. Thus the super regional is brought into the picture. This allows/closes states in order to helm them advance their own teams to the regional event and finally allows events to advance whole alliances instead of just alliance captains. Then the super-regional is an event that will have a similar level of competition to World.

(emphasis mine)

So this system will lock in states so out-of-state teams can't compete at other state's regionals? I would love that. Currently, Wisconsin doesn't have enough teams to require qualifying events, so out-of-state teams see the WI regional as an easy target, because they don't have to qualify for it. And as a result, Wisconsin teams didn't get to advance.

[JohnFogarty]

You are correct.

[Andrew Schuetze]

I don't think the implementation of Super-Regional Championship tournaments does anything to lock in States. Please check the FAQ on the FIRST website.

Can I pick which Super-Regional I want to attend once I qualify?

No. Each Championship will advance teams to a specified Super-Regional. It does not matter where your team is located; you will advance to the Super-Regional designated for the Championship where you qualify.

My reading of this policy is that a team from state X could compete in the Championship system of state Y if they have been and will continue to allow teams from out of state to still compete at their event(s).

[JohnFogarty]

I suppose that statement would make it so you could compete within your region... but this system is designed to discourage teams from competing at events far beyond their region in a last hope to make a seat a world/region championships.

South Carolina in particular had a large problem with that this past season. Not to say we didn't enjoy the competition from out of state..but when only one or two in-state teams are placing in any given award category it gets a bit discouraging to the teams that you would like to see returning to the FTC program...and not getting dragged away by the new allure that VEX seems to be pushing in our state.

[gotrobot?]

We are one of those teams that travels to other states to compete. Up until now, Illinois has held their qualifiers in November and a championship in December. Competing in other states lengthened our season and experience. It also provided us the opportunity to meet a lot of great teams--some of whom we still keep in contact.

Not all the out of state tournaments were championships, some were regional qualifiers too, but admittedly the chance of getting to Worlds from an out of state championship did have its attraction.

This year IL is running 6 qualifiers over a couple months and the state championship in February. I'm pretty sure this will impact our out of state ventures but with a little luck we might be able to participate in at least one.

[Carol A]

Why did they put the North Super-Regional the same weekend as Midwest FRC regional? We are a community based FRC team but are starting 3 FTC teams in 3 high schools this year. If one of the FTC teams goes to Super-Regional our Mentors, Students, & Volunteers would be split. I guess we will have to go to Central IL (if it is not Week 6) & Wisc. Regionals.

[Nemo]

Originally Posted by Carol A

Why did they put the North Super-Regional the same weekend as Midwest FRC regional? We are a community based FRC team but are starting 3 FTC teams in 3 high schools this year. If one of the FTC teams goes to Super-Regional our Mentors, Students, & Volunteers would be split. I guess we will have to go to Central IL (if it is not Week 6) & Wisc. Regionals.

I actually think they chose the date wisely. There are only five possible weekends to hold the super regional, bracketed by Indiana State FTC championship (the last state champs, I believe), and Worlds. You can't have the super regional before all of the state championship events, and you really don't want to have the super regional the week right after that since that would only be a five day gap between competitions. So really, you're looking at FRC week 4, 5, 6, 7, or the week before Champs. Week before champs is bad since that would be only a 3 day gap between trips.

So that leaves week 5, 6, and 7. Week 5 has at least three FRC regionals, so that's the worst option if you only care about FRC vs FTC conflicts. Between week 6 and 7 with one event each in the Midwest, I could go either way. Conflicting with MSC and being one week later isn't a great option, in my opinion.

March 15: FRC Week 3, plus Indiana State FTC Champs
March 22: 5 days after Indiana FTC, plus FRC Week 4, Wisconsin + Kansas City + Boilermaker + Buckeye
March 29: FRC Week 5, Minneapolis 10K/North Star + Queen City
April 5: Week 6, Midwest
April 12: Week 7, Michigan State Champs
April 19: 4 days until World Championship

The April 5th weekend gives teams two full weeks between super regional and Worlds, which sounds about right.

I do empathize with your teams, though. We also have FTC + FRC, and it creates some tricky calendar choices.

[Just_In_Time]

Does anyone know around how many teams will be advancing from the State Championships to the Super Regionals? Will it vary by the number of FTC teams in the state, number of states in the region, or will it be the same number across the board for every State Championship? I read on the Oregon FTC website that they will be advancing 11 teams to Super Regionals. If anyone knows anything about the East Region (specifically New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delware, and Maryland) it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

JIT

[Sasha]

Originally Posted by Just_In_Time

Does anyone know around how many teams will be advancing from the State Championships to the Super Regionals?...
If anyone knows anything about the East Region (specifically New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delware, and Maryland) it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

JIT

According to the info given at lower Hudson qualifier (http://csis.pace.edu/~firsttech/blog...014-FINAL.pdf), the East Region super-regional will have 72 teams coming from 12 championships. Assuming the same number of teams from each championship, it means that six teams advance from each one.

[Nemo]

Originally Posted by Sasha

According to the info given at lower Hudson qualifier (http://csis.pace.edu/~firsttech/blog...014-FINAL.pdf), the East Region super-regional will have 72 teams coming from 12 championships. Assuming the same number of teams from each championship, it means that six teams advance from each one.

It is not safe to assume that the same number of teams will advance from each Championship tournament.