FRC Blogged-Standard District Point Structure

[MikeE]

Let's put the Rookie/2nd year team bonus in perspective with some numbers.

If we ignore the age bonus, the average points total (i.e. expected points if we don't assign priors) for a "standard" sized district event of 40 teams is 25.3pts per team. In other words an average of 51.3 points from two standard district events.

In that context an age bonus of 5/10pts per event seems too large, so let's assume the age bonus is a once-per-season bonus. Now confirmed by Don below.

Note that the size of the event also impacts the average points per team. While the qualification match points awarded at an event are proportional to the number of teams attending, the other components are fixed per event so do not vary based on the number of teams. There are always 8 alliances (i.e. 24 teams get alliance selection points), always 4 alliances scoring elimination match points, and always* Chariman's, EI + 11 other awards (+ up to 2 rookie awards).
So at a smaller event the fixed points are distributed across fewer teams leading to higher average points/team.

In 2013 Michigan events were all either 39 or 40 teams, but 2013 MAR events ranged from 31 teams at Lenape-Seneca up to 43 teams at Bridgewater-Raritan. Under the new unified model the average points at a 31 team event is 29.2, whereas at a 43 team event it's only 24.4.

Therefore a team attending the two largest 2013 MAR events (37 & 43 teams) would expect an average of 50.8pts and a team attending the two smallest (31 & 33 teams) would expect an average of 57.3pts. That's 6.5 points difference/13% advantage to the team at smaller events, more than the 2nd year age bonus.

So all else being equal, teams should attend smaller districts.

Or perhaps a better conclusion is that district events should be as close as possible to the same size.

* in reality some awards are occasionally skipped at events (e.g. Judges award)