Frank Answers Fridays - Expanded Championship

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by Jay O'Donnell

Is the current wait list a "first come first served" system? I don't think I'd like seeing 200 teams go that just hit the button on a computer fast enough. Teams need to earn their way to the championship in my opinion.

I think having some wait-list teams is definitely good (see Jon Stratis' post, which I quoted). 33% of the teams though? Yeah, I think that's too many.

That said, even if FIRST did nothing to change the way that teams qualify to CMP, there would not be 200 teams from the wait-list in 2015. I'm sure there will be a few more regionals next year, so maybe about 24-42 more teams will qualify through more regionals. Also, the # of slots each district earns will basically be [Teams at CMP] * [Teams in District] / [Teams in FRC], so if the teams at CMP increase by 50% (and the ratio of teams in all the districts to the teams in FRC is similar), then there will be about 50 more teams qualifying from the districts.

So there will in all likelihood be about 90 -125 teams from the wait-list at CMP next year. Depending on your FIRST-philosophy, this may be too high or too low... I happen to think it's somewhat high (I think about 10% of the teams at CMP should be from the wait-list).

Originally Posted by Nemo

With more teams headed to Champs, the first, easiest change I'd like to see is an expansion of wildcards.

For every regional event, add exactly six teams to the list who weren't already qualified. That means Hall of Fame teams create automatic wildcards anywhere they go. A team that qualifies via awards and winning at the same competition generates a wildcard. Under this system, it is debatable whether a winning alliance backup robot should get an automatic bid, or if they should instead be #7 on the pecking order. The latter allows for a predictable number of Championship bids to be created.

I like the concept of expanding the wild-card system... Including the technical judged awards in the ranking does concern me though, given how difficult the judges' job is. Teams with underwhelming technical robots rarely get the tech awards, but we've all seen some pretty surprising tech award choices! I like a smaller expansion of the Wild Card that only sees the invitations extend to the Finalists' (but a Finalist could get a Wild Card slot from a HoF team, a Chairmans' winner, EI, or RAS, not just from the Regional Winners'). Also, I think a single team winning Chairman's (or EI) and winning the regional at the same event should open up a Wild Card slot.

Originally Posted by Nemo

A system like this would make it seem less impossible to advance from some events. As things are right now, it's incredibly difficult to get into Champs with your robot alone at many (most) regional events if they have two really good teams. In fact, it's even harder if your team has a good enough robot to get picked in the first round. The two good teams pair up and win, and the #16 pick advances along with a rookie team and the two big award winners. Upsets happen, but usually the #1 seed wins those events when two great teams are present.

The regional system does make it very difficult for the teams in a region with two (or more) elite teams. In my mind the real solution is the district system though... it does so much better at getting the top teams into CMP!

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Possibly. FIRST is going to have to answer the even bigger question of is St. Louis capable of hosting 200 more FRC teams, 300+ more FRC volunteers, xxx more FTC teams/volunteers, xxx more FLL teams/volunteers, and xxx JRFLL teams/volunteers. I'm not talking about venue size (which is its own debate) but hotel, food, etc.

Yeah, this is a non-trivial issue... It's not unreasonable to expect 40-55% more people in St. Louis for the FIRST championship... with how difficult it already was getting travel and lodging, this isn't just a "it'll work itself out" consideration.

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Often the teams that get inspired the most by champs are the ones that don't earn their way in.

A team with a strong program that can build a robot that wins a competition, or win The Chairman's award can get a little from champs, but it's the teams without those strong programs that will be inspired and take home the most. I have seen teams get in on the waitlist, and come back the next year with a completely revamped program and a much better robot than they had ever fielded before.

Attending the FIRST Championship is usually an infectiously exciting experience... regardless of whether or not the slot was earned.