FRC Blogged-Standard District Point Structure

[Akash Rastogi]

I'll share my perspective on the Rookie/2nd year team points bonus; however, my experience may not be the same as the majority of rookie teams in FRC.

While on 3929, our team focused on creating a competitive robot to play in eliminations, but we also focused most of our energy on the rookie awards. We happened to get lucky and win a district with 25 and 222, but I don't think I would have minded if we did not qualify for MAR Champs. What my team experienced was rookies who were way better than us, for example 3974 and 4342. What our 3 rookie teams showed is that you can still earn a spot at your Regional Championship without needing a special boost, even if it does take luck and hard work. 3929 focused on awards, and the other two earned their way through better robots. I just don't see the need for an added bonus.

By just giving us points to get ahead, it would have discouraged veteran teams who aren't as lucky to have experienced mentors. A team's age doesn't mean that people on that team have been members for a long period of time, so age in FRC does not inherently equal experience. I think this would be pretty discouraging for both the rookies and weak veterans.

Adding a bonus for the age of the team makes sense from the perspective of someone on the outside-looking-in, but I think some rookie teams might take it as a sign of pity, I believe many of my students would have. They worked hard to earn their rookie awards, but if we happened to earn more points over a veteran who is stronger than us simply because we were a rookie, I would feel pretty bad about it.

These are just my thoughts based on my mentorship of 3929, not necessarily the views of 3929.