Event Structure

[ArtemusMaximus]

Can someone point me to the resources or simply explain the event structure.
I seen thread "(Lack of) Value in the Regional Model" where they compare district and regional events and I am not clear what is the difference.

If the resources easily available, then I must have ADD as I cannot find information on that

[Max Boord]

Regionals where the first system FIRST used to qualify teams for the world championship. In the regional system winning the event,, the chairmans award or the engineering inspiration award qualified you for the championship.
This works great untill events begin to grow much larger than 50 teams at that point an event requires an entire arena (the Orlando regional with 64 teams is a good example of this) making it expensive while also reducing the number of matches a team can play, and number of percentage of teams qualifying for championship.

Districts fix all of these problums. the idea is each team pays the standard $5000 fee to FIRST but instead of playing 1 regional wich may be 60+ teams and only get 8-10 matches, the team would play 2 30ish team events and 24 matches. Teams are also offered the option to pay an additional $1000 to play a 3rd event while a 2nd regional costs $4000. However, winning the event or any award does not qualify a team for championship. it instead gives you points. District points are awarded based on score, the type of match (qualification, quarterfinal, semifinal and final) and any award won. The top teams based on points and the district chairmans award winners then qualify to advance to the district championship.

The district championship is run like a standard 64 team regional with a $4000 buy in and also awards points however the number of points are increased. Winning the district championship, district championship chairmans, or district championship engineering inspiration advances that team to worlds. also the top 24 teams based on points also qualify for the championship.

[Rachel Lim]

Originally Posted by Max Boord

also the top 24 teams based on points also qualify for the championship.

According to the Admin Manual, the number of teams that qualify from a district to the district champs and to champs varies:

Originally Posted by Admin Manual 7.4.3

Number of teams attending District Championship
FiM ......................... 102
IN............................ 32
MAR ........................ 55
NE .......................... 60
PNW......................... 64

Originally Posted by Admin Manual 7.4.4

District Championship Allocation
FiM ......................... 68
IN............................ 10
MAR ........................ 25
NE .......................... 35
PNW......................... 31

The ranking for districts (how they chose the teams from each district that advance) is explained in section 7.4.1 of the Admin Manual. This blog post and the two documents linked in there explain the math behind it.

I also wrote this document for my team to help explain the math more "visually," since I thought the inverse error function was fun but most of my friends didn't get it: http://goo.gl/lx2I2l

Qualifying through regionals is slightly simpler (but the math is less fun), and is explained in section 7.3 of the Admin Manual. Team can qualify in three ways:

1. Awards: Winning Chairman's, Engineering Inspiration, or Rookie All Star
2. Winning: Being on the winning alliance
3. Wildcard: A team on the winning alliance is already qualified (through any way) or wins an award at that event that qualifies them, and passes on their qualifying spot to the next team on the finalist alliance that hasn't qualified (captain -> first pick -> second pick)

There are various pros/cons for districts and for regionals, but as FIRST grows, most places are turning to districts because regionals simply can't deal with that many teams. A quick search on Chief Delphi can probably bring up many of those debates.

[ArtemusMaximus]

Originally Posted by Max Boord

Regionals where the first system FIRST used to qualify teams for the world championship. In the regional system winning the event,, the chairmans award or the engineering inspiration award qualified you for the championship.
This works great untill events begin to grow much larger than 50 teams at that point an event requires an entire arena (the Orlando regional with 64 teams is a good example of this) making it expensive while also reducing the number of matches a team can play, and number of percentage of teams qualifying for championship.

Districts fix all of these problums. the idea is each team pays the standard $5000 fee to FIRST but instead of playing 1 regional wich may be 60+ teams and only get 8-10 matches, the team would play 2 30ish team events and 24 matches. Teams are also offered the option to pay an additional $1000 to play a 3rd event while a 2nd regional costs $4000. However, winning the event or any award does not qualify a team for championship. it instead gives you points. District points are awarded based on score, the type of match (qualification, quarterfinal, semifinal and final) and any award won. The top teams based on points and the district chairmans award winners then qualify to advance to the district championship.

The district championship is run like a standard 64 team regional with a $4000 buy in and also awards points however the number of points are increased. Winning the district championship, district championship chairmans, or district championship engineering inspiration advances that team to worlds. also the top 24 teams based on points also qualify for the championship.

Thanks guys for this info. It's a bit clearer now ... .. .. . I think :S

[ArtemusMaximus]

Originally Posted by Rachel Lim

According to the Admin Manual, the number of teams that qualify from a district to the district champs and to champs varies:




The ranking for districts (how they chose the teams from each district that advance) is explained in section 7.4.1 of the Admin Manual. This blog post and the two documents linked in there explain the math behind it.

I also wrote this document for my team to help explain the math more "visually," since I thought the inverse error function was fun but most of my friends didn't get it: http://goo.gl/lx2I2l

Qualifying through regionals is slightly simpler (but the math is less fun), and is explained in section 7.3 of the Admin Manual. Team can qualify in three ways:

1. Awards: Winning Chairman's, Engineering Inspiration, or Rookie All Star
2. Winning: Being on the winning alliance
3. Wildcard: A team on the winning alliance is already qualified (through any way) or wins an award at that event that qualifies them, and passes on their qualifying spot to the next team on the finalist alliance that hasn't qualified (captain -> first pick -> second pick)

There are various pros/cons for districts and for regionals, but as FIRST grows, most places are turning to districts because regionals simply can't deal with that many teams. A quick search on Chief Delphi can probably bring up many of those debates.

I wasn't looking for a debate posts. I just found myself lost in the debates I've read.

I was a mentor for a rookie team last season. Not doing it this year, but thinking in the future to start new FRC team (we have only 2 teams in the city of 800K). I'll probably start small with FLL team and graduate to FTC,VEX and FRC. So I am gathering intel .

[Rachel Lim]

Originally Posted by ArtemusMaximus

I wasn't looking for a debate posts. I just found myself lost in the debates I've read.

I was a mentor for a rookie team last season. Not doing it this year, but thinking in the future to start new FRC team (we have only 2 teams in the city of 800K). I'll probably start small with FLL team and graduate to FTC,VEX and FRC. So I am gathering intel .

According to the thread "Ohio going to Districts?", almost all of FIRST will be in districts by 2017, so if you'll be starting with FLL or any other program, you won't have to deal with figuring out what's the difference.

Also, I believe districts / regionals are only for FRC. FTC qualification is explained here, and goes from qualifiers to State Champs to Super Regionals to Champs. From their website, FLL seems to only have qualifiers -> champs (and smaller ones only have champs).

[ArtemusMaximus]

Originally Posted by Rachel Lim

According to the thread "Ohio going to Districts?", almost all of FIRST will be in districts by 2017, so if you'll be starting with FLL or any other program, you won't have to deal with figuring out what's the difference.

Also, I believe districts / regionals are only for FRC. FTC qualification is explained here, and goes from qualifiers to State Champs to Super Regionals to Champs. From their website, FLL seems to only have qualifiers -> champs (and smaller ones only have champs).

FIRST is not as developed in Canada as it is in US. According to http://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2015abca there are only 33 teams in our regional competition. 5 of them are from US and 1 from Mexico.
Another good/bad point is that 15 out of 33 teams are 5000+, which means plenty of earlier teams are dropping out. I don't know the reasons, but rookie team from our city that seeded 4th last year is not competing this year.
So it's slow to gain momentum.

According to rationale in the thread you posted, we may stay as Regional for some time.

[Rachel Lim]

Originally Posted by ArtemusMaximus

FIRST is not as developed in Canada as it is in US. According to http://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2015abca there are only 33 teams in our regional competition. 5 of them are from US and 1 from Mexico.
Another good/bad point is that 15 out of 33 teams are 5000+, which means plenty of earlier teams are dropping out. I don't know the reasons, but rookie team from our city that seeded 4th last year is not competing this year.
So it's slow to gain momentum.

According to rationale in the thread you posted, we may stay as Regional for some time.

Sorry, by your location "Canada" I didn't know which part of Canada you were referring to. US and Canada both have areas with a very high concentration of FRC teams and events and those with far fewer. For example, the Greater Toronto regionals (GTRE and GRTC), Waterloo, and Windsor Essex Great Lakes are all around the same area. Areas with fewer teams in the US (and no events) would include North/South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming and many other rural areas. It's not entirely clear what areas without the concentration of teams to do a district will do, but I guess we'll all be finding out.

[ArtemusMaximus]

Originally Posted by Rachel Lim

Sorry, by your location "Canada" I didn't know which part of Canada you were referring to. US and Canada both have areas with a very high concentration of FRC teams and events and those with far fewer. For example, the Greater Toronto regionals (GTRE and GRTC), Waterloo, and Windsor Essex Great Lakes are all around the same area. Areas with fewer teams in the US (and no events) would include North/South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming and many other rural areas. It's not entirely clear what areas without the concentration of teams to do a district will do, but I guess we'll all be finding out.

I did provide the link to the competition info page on Blue Alliance site http://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2015abca
Location is Province of Alberta, 2 major cities are Calgary and Edmonton. Calgary is where "Western Canada Regional" Competition is held.

My hope is to promote technological competitions and raise awareness of STEM related programs, so we are not not known as just an "Oil Country"