Official: New England Districts in 2014

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

Hmm... so either they will have to have the District Championship be a fair bit smaller than initial hopes, or they plan to somehow house another 10-20 teams...

Boston seems like a reasonable location. Ideally it'd be closer to Connecticut though... I'm sure there'll be a significant contingent coming from CT who would all be well out of "daily-commute" range. That said, even teams that do live in the 30-60 miles range will have to consider whether or not they want to fight there way into Boston on Thursday and Friday morning...

MAR Championships this year(and next year) is ~1 hour away for most teams, to put things into comparison.

And in regards to team numbers, in FiM last year, there were 207 teams registered. Of those 207 teams, there were 64 region championship spots, meaning 31% of teams made it the region championship. In MAR last year, there were 110 team registered with a total of 50 teams registered, so 45% of teams making it.

In New England(data taken from this map, there are 151 teams currently in NE, so 53 teams at Region Championship would be 35% of teams making it. (realistically, I assume if 53 is the max capacity it would be bumped up to 54 teams to limit the usage of surrogate matches)This blog says their goal was 60 teams(I believe this was the initial number MAR was going for), so that would be about 40% of all teams. Overall, this provides a fair/similar percentage of teams in comparison to FiM and MAR.

[Pault]

Yea, the Boston pits were a little crowded with 50 teams last year, but I can definitely see "our new overlords" finding the space for 10 more teams. Even if they have to downsize the pits a little from the usual 10x10, I think I would be OK with that. And I think that having the champs in a big city will do good for publicity. But mostly I am just biased towards Boston because my team is in Boston (I did a little dance when I found out the champs would be here ).

Also, am I the only one surprised that the number of events south of MA went from 1 to 4, but there was only 1 event added for the rest of New England. I'm not an expert on NE FRC geography, but I just find it very strange.

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by Pault

Also, am I the only one surprised that the number of events south of MA went from 1 to 4, but there was only 1 event added for the rest of New England. I'm not an expert on NE FRC geography, but I just find it very strange.

Considering there are <5 teams in Vermont, I'm not surprised at a lack of an event there. Maine and Rhode Island were both close to 3-6 teams not too long ago, but are growing fast and do need one event per state. New Hampshire is at around 30 teams currently, so two does seem reasonable. MA and CT are the major sites for FRC teams in New England (I believe it's about 50 each) so 3-4 makes sense, especially considering everyone needs two events. I can't wait to see the venues for district events close to home, that'll be a major factor in our choice of events (most of our team seems to be willing to sacrifice distance for a great venue). Great job with the quick updates NE FIRST!

[IKE]

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

MAR Championships this year(and next year) is ~1 hour away for most teams, to put things into comparison.

And in regards to team numbers, in FiM last year, there were 207 teams registered. Of those 207 teams, there were 64 region championship spots, meaning 31% of teams made it the region championship. In MAR last year, there were 110 team registered with a total of 50 teams registered, so 45% of teams making it.

In New England(data taken from this map, there are 151 teams currently in NE, so 53 teams at Region Championship would be 35% of teams making it. (realistically, I assume if 53 is the max capacity it would be bumped up to 54 teams to limit the usage of surrogate matches)This blog says their goal was 60 teams(I believe this was the initial number MAR was going for), so that would be about 40% of all teams. Overall, this provides a fair/similar percentage of teams in comparison to FiM and MAR.

The first year for FiM, there were about 120 teams and 60-64 at MSC. in other words about 50% of teams were invited to teh state championship. Somewhere between 33%&50% feels about right. much lower than 33%, and it starts making it so that one bad event requires a spectacular event to qualify...

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by IKE

The first year for FiM, there were about 120 teams and 60-64 at MSC. in other words about 50% of teams were invited to teh state championship. Somewhere between 33%&50% feels about right. much lower than 33%, and it starts making it so that one bad event requires a spectacular event to qualify...

Depending on how you define "bad event," even at around 40% it's already that way. If you miss the eliminations at your first event, it often requires a trip all the way to the finals at your second district to qualify for the region championship event.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Depending on how you define "bad event," even at around 40% it's already that way. If you miss the eliminations at your first event, it often requires a trip all the way to the finals at your second district to qualify for the region championship event.

Example this year: 2495. Finished second to last at TCNJ then went on to win Lenape, and even with that, they barely made it in.


Also, it should be taken into account that at 9 Districts, that means 9 Chairmans winners possibly "taking away"(not saying that to be demeaning/condescending) point-slots. IMO with that many Chairmans there should be more spots at the Region Championship(of course, that is, if the NE FIRST points system autoqualifies Chairmans winners, which per Jim Zondag's FiM FAQ is probably the case)

[scottandme]

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

Also, it should be taken into account that at 9 Districts, that means 9 Chairmans winners possibly "taking away"(not saying that to be demeaning/condescending) point-slots. IMO with that many Chairmans there should be more spots at the Region Championship(of course, that is, if the NE FIRST points system autoqualifies Chairmans winners, which per Jim Zondag's FiM FAQ is probably the case)

To date (2012 and 2013), this has never happened in MAR - all 11 winners (5 in 2012 and 6 in 2013) would have qualified for the Region Championship without the auto-bid.

2012 DCA Ranks: 2, 9, 22, 53, 55 (cutoff dropped to the 64th ranked team)
2013 DCA Ranks: 2, 6, 10, 23, 31, 38 (cutoff dropped to 65th ranked team)