How do divisions work at champs?

[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...

[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.

[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.

[alephzer0]

Wow...This discussion got really interesting very quickly.
So what I've picked up is that divisions are semi-random and there may be more of them in the coming year. I think it should be interesting to see how this all plays out. I appreciate the quick and helpful answers.

[brandon.cottrell]

The divisions are "semi-random" in the sense that there is a system in which people COULD manipulate what division they're in, but there wouldn't be any end result until they were actually placed in the division, and the whole process is basically impossible. Technically though if you had information on the registry of every team ever, when and in what order, you could aim to be in one of 4 divisions. I highly doubt you could coordinate (or FIRST would even allow) every team to be in cahoots about how they register to get desired alliance, and plus random teams just kind of string their way in, so there really is no way around it being a dice roll.

Also on the note of more divisions, if it was an even number you could keep the same structure we have now.

tl;dr: If you want to keep everything fair and balanced to everyone, keep it out of the control of those it pertains to.

[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.

[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.