How do divisions work at champs?

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by 3175student17

I'm still confused how 6 would work for Einstein... Do you seed one division over the others, do you round robin between all then an NFL style elims? It just seems so confusing

Vex has done a number of divisions that isn't a power of 2 for their equivalent of Einstein. I believe they used a round robin format of some sort.

[Abhishek R]

If you get 6 divisions, it seems to me the only "fair" way to do it would be a round-robin of some kind. Otherwise, you would have to get a bit complicated with your brackets because a bye gives some divisions an inherent "advantage" over the others.

I put "fair" and "advantage" in quotes because it wouldn't be any fault of the teams, and also that even if the bracket did have a bye, it would probably just be a question of semantics as to who were quarterfinalists (losing in the Ro6 vs the Ro4).

[Jay O'Donnell]

I really hope they do 8 divisions. I personally think a simple, single elimination bracket makes a lot more sense for Einstein. Round Robin doesn't make each match feel as awesome to me. Plus with a single elimination tournament it's much easier to say you were a Semifinalist or something like that, instead of saying you had such and such a record on Einstein.

[bduddy]

I honestly would be a fan of round-robin just for the novelty factor - that would be a lot of fun matches! I'm worried about the timing, though - 15 matches plus a potential tiebreaker match or matches (we're not going to decide the champion on tiebreakers, are we?) would be a lot. So would 8 divisions, though...

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by bduddy

I honestly would be a fan of round-robin just for the novelty factor - that would be a lot of fun matches! I'm worried about the timing, though - 15 matches plus a potential tiebreaker match or matches (we're not going to decide the champion on tiebreakers, are we?) would be a lot. So would 8 divisions, though...

I could see them doing round-robin one year and then bumping it up to a full 8-team bracket the next year (due to being more comfortable with the amount of teams/ the inevitable complaining).

[tindleroot]

The system they use also should spread out the pre-registered teams (Chairman's, legacy, and last year's winners, who are all great teams), which explains why we never have a division with 254, 1114, 67, etc together. Since they all registered first, they will be distributed evenly.

[themccannman]

Divisions and the number of teams are changing next year, but I don't think I'm allowed to say anything else about it.

[RonnieS]

Originally Posted by orangemoore

Frank Said in his blog that 8 divisions would likely be too many just by the sheer size 4 additional fields would take up. Even with FTC gone it doesn't save that much room.

First has but fields in the pits before...I wouldn't throw away this idea. It is very possible they will have 1-2 competition fields in the pit area.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Ronnie314

First has but fields in the pits before...I wouldn't throw away this idea. It is very possible they will have 1-2 competition fields in the pit area.

And it was awful. Just awful.

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by Ronnie314

First has but fields in the pits before...I wouldn't throw away this idea. It is very possible they will have 1-2 competition fields in the pit area.

On the crowd, seating, and scouting perspectives, it was really quite awful. It did at least make it very easy for the drive team, robot, pit crew, scouts, and others to get back and forth between the field and the pits! ;-)

I think the bigger slap in the face that annoyed me about the two pit fields in 2011 was the dishonesty from FIRST about it. At the time FIRST was extremely closed about decisions... It was the first year that CMP was in St. Louis and FIRST insisted that the pit fields were necessary because the fields wouldn't all fit in the Edward Jones Dome, not because they had 30-40% of the dome closed off every day for the Black Eyed Peas concert on Friday night. Let's just say that many of us saw through it...

[orangemoore]

Originally Posted by Ronnie314

First has but fields in the pits before...I wouldn't throw away this idea. It is very possible they will have 1-2 competition fields in the pit area.

I am open to the idea but FIRST has hinted at the fact there will likely be less than 8 fields. More fields means more teams and competition which would be cool.

[AdamStockton]

Originally Posted by Ronnie314

First has but fields in the pits before...I wouldn't throw away this idea. It is very possible they will have 1-2 competition fields in the pit area.

After experiencing pit fields in 2011, I would not want to see fields in the pit ever again.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

On the crowd, seating, and scouting perspectives, it was really quite awful. It did at least make it very easy for the drive team, robot, pit crew, scouts, and others to get back and forth between the field and the pits! ;-)

I think the bigger slap in the face that annoyed me about the two pit fields in 2011 was the dishonesty from FIRST about it. At the time FIRST was extremely closed about decisions... It was the first year that CMP was in St. Louis and FIRST insisted that the pit fields were necessary because the fields wouldn't all fit in the Edward Jones Dome, not because they had 30-40% of the dome closed off every day for the Black Eyed Peas concert on Friday night. Let's just say that many of us saw through it...

The concept of pit fields at CMP pre-dated the concept of the concert. The pit fields weren't there because of that.

[Wayne TenBrink]

Originally Posted by AdamStockton

After experiencing pit fields in 2011, I would not want to see fields in the pit ever again.

It was awful when there were 100 teams in the division. I would be willing to give it another try with fewer teams per division, especially if it allowed a regular 8 alliance playoff on Einstein.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

The concept of pit fields at CMP pre-dated the concept of the concert. The pit fields weren't there because of that.

Has anyone ever elaborated on the "pre-concert" rationale for this decision? I just don't see how it could make sense, especially when it really wasn't hard to fit all the fields in the dome in the years following.