[FRC Blog] Inter-District Play for 2015

[pwnageNick]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

Or it might just be because they're testing the waters on this...

There is still no reason why district teams can go play in other districts. These district teams only see the same advantages from inter-district play that "Regional Event" teams would have attending district events. And the argument that it would flood the system to allow "Regional Event" teams to attend districts is crazy, because in most of the areas affected by districts (Northeast and Midwest) district teams could flood other district events much more than "Regional Event" teams could. Outside of NY, Ohio, and teams west of Lake Michigan, everyone is districts at this point.

Cory is completely right. If I was FIRST, why would I not want an extra $3000 from a team registering for a second event?

It's one thing if FIRST really wants everyone to go to districts, but its not fair to penalize teams when we are not in control of whether our are goes to districts or not. Trust me, there are plenty of us in IL who wanted to go to districts, and thought/expected that we would with Indiana.

[MARS_James]

Originally Posted by GKrotkov

Can you explain this a bit more? Because they shouldn't have to deal with teams coming into their districts? I could certainly see this making it harder for some Indiana teams to make it to their district championship, but if the encroaching teams spread out over the district events (taking what events they could get), wouldn't they have about an equal force on each Indiana team?

The making it to district championship is not my issue, my issues are more about the following:

1. Every other district got at least 1 year where it was just that district systems teams with no outsiders coming in, this allowed you to get a realistic look at what would happen if we operated like other highschool sports.
2. It allows the newly formed district committees a year to have some transitional pains and easier contact with all teams competing.
3. Establishing of an identity, you can look at MSC and PNW and see two very distinct "brands" in terms of production value
4. No artificial inflation of volunteer base, if you are a team traveling to a high school gym and have no chance of qualifying to get to Championship I could see several of your members joining up to volunteer at the event. The issue this causes is when Indiana looks back and sees X number of volunteers attended the event they may think that it shows the potential for the next district event to be placed close by as the volunteer base appeared strong.

Those were 4 off the top of my head but If you want more I will probably think of more on my drive home from work

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I'll take baby steps in the right direciton over no steps at all.

I disagree on the part that we are excluded.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Cory

It's very simple. Money. Why would FIRST allow you, as a regional team, to compete in districts, when they will lose $4000 every time that happens?

I didnt want to say this at first, but since you did, I totally agree here.
There is no other logical explanation to exclude everyone else.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I'll take baby steps in the right direction over no steps at all.

I think this is the forest that ChiefDelphi often misses as we're picking the branches off every tree.

Is this perfect? No. Is it the beginning of the right move? Absolutely.

FIRST HQ can't do everything perfectly, and certainly can't do anything instantly. But they're listening and improving things in baby steps. That's a good thing.

[Basel A]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

It's a small, but important difference. Last year, an additional play was only defined as a third. Now, it can be your third....or your fourth....or...

My understanding is that this means a team will not be able to win a DCA or DEI at their third district, even if it's within their district region. Is that interpretation correct?

[GKrotkov]

Originally Posted by MARS_James

The making it to district championship is not my issue, my issues are more about the following:

1. Every other district got at least 1 year where it was just that district systems teams with no outsiders coming in, this allowed you to get a realistic look at what would happen if we operated like other highschool sports.
2. It allows the newly formed district committees a year to have some transitional pains and easier contact with all teams competing.
3. Establishing of an identity, you can look at MSC and PNW and see two very distinct "brands" in terms of production value
4. No artificial inflation of volunteer base, if you are a team traveling to a high school gym and have no chance of qualifying to get to Championship I could see several of your members joining up to volunteer at the event. The issue this causes is when Indiana looks back and sees X number of volunteers attended the event they may think that it shows the potential for the next district event to be placed close by as the volunteer base appeared strong.

Those were 4 off the top of my head but If you want more I will probably think of more on my drive home from work

Thank you. I understand now.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by waialua359

I didnt want to say this at first, but since you did, I totally agree here.
There is no other logical explanation to exclude everyone else.

The demand would also be massive and teams would be outraged that certain teams got spots and others didn't. That's a practical limitation that is probably a bigger concern than the money, given that there will not be that many open spots available for teams to cross-play in this year.

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by Basel A

My understanding is that this means a team will not be able to win a DCA or DEI at their third district, even if it's within their district region. Is that interpretation correct?

According to last year's rules, teams in-district can still win CC Awards and receive the appropriate invites to the District Championship in all additional events. The points only count for the first two chronological in-district events.

Teams out of district coming in can not win CC Awards at that event. Not only would it be a logistical nightmare ("hey! get your robot back here in 3 weeks!" as well as "ok, so if they get to go to CMP, who are they representing?"), but the DCMPs are meant to be the best of that particular region.

(As an aside, I honestly know we talked about whether the out of district teams would be able to interview anyway, but I'm completely blanking on what was agreed upon - I'll see what I can dig up.)

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by MARS_James

4. No artificial inflation of volunteer base, if you are a team traveling to a high school gym and have no chance of qualifying to get to Championship I could see several of your members joining up to volunteer at the event. The issue this causes is when Indiana looks back and sees X number of volunteers attended the event they may think that it shows the potential for the next district event to be placed close by as the volunteer base appeared strong.

Indiana's volunteer base is already strong. We know what resources we can count on.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I'll take baby steps in the right direciton over no steps at all.

Same. Everyone is eager to react negatively rather than say what is positive.

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by Cory

The demand would also be massive and teams would be outraged that certain teams got spots and others didn't. That's a practical limitation that is probably a bigger concern than the money, given that there will not be that many open spots available for teams to cross-play in this year.

This was more my line of thought. Of course FIRST sees the benefit not losing out on regional registration fees, but however easy we want to make it seem for them to let regional teams play, or x, or y, they're trying something new and they're acting with a bit of restraint-- remember that it is a large enough organization that it has a bit of inertia. Opening the floodgates entirely would be rather irresponsible on their part-- not to reiterate Cory's statement too much, but having a ton of teams vying for a few spots is a recipe for conflict. That first would like to avoid introducing new venom into the FIRST community after the 2014 game shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Besides, in the grand scheme of things, a gradual transition of one or two seasons really isn't that long of a wait.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I trust that FIRST HQ genuinely has the best interests of teams at heart.

[Gregor]

As of this post, from my own interpretation, from posts of which I could distinguish a side to favour:

Posts from those located within a district system who gave a positive comment:
10

Posts from those located within a district system who gave a negative comment:
2

Posts from those located outside a district system who gave a positive comment:
1

Posts from those located outide a district system who gave a negative comment:
12

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by Gregor

As of this post, from my own interpretation, from posts of which I could distinguish a side to favour:

Posts from those located within a district system who gave a positive comment:
10

Posts from those located within a district system who gave a negative comment:
2

Posts from those located outside a district system who gave a positive comment:
1

Posts from those located outide a district system who gave a negative comment:
12

Theory: Those who pay less for more plays are predisposed to be happier and more positive, as reflected by their posts.

[Caleb Sykes]

I do think that this is a very good change and I am happy to see it implemented. I understand that FIRST is intentionally taking things slowly to see what the results are.

However, the clear assymetry between districts and regionals is only made more obvious by this change. It bothers me to some extent to see this gap grow wider (and there aren't even any districts nearby to my team, I can't imagine how teams from Ohio or New York are feeling now).