Future First Championship News

[Pauline Tasci]

I think this take's a lot away from what Champs is all about. Your competing with the best of the best in the entire world in one place. You get to meet with thousands of people who love FIRST the same way you do, you get to meet your friends from different coasts and trade shirts, you have the ability to be the WORLD champions, and get to see those robots that have been winning all their events. Splitting it into 2 different champs would eliminate all of that.
There would be no world champions, you would never meet your favorite team on the other side of the world, the competition would go down severely.
This just does not seem like a good idea and I would LOVE to hear the discussion when they decided this was a good idea.

Because right now I believe the cons are out weighing the pros.

[Breakaway3937]

I do not like this one bit. With the incorporation of the districts, that should be used to reduce the number of teams that qualify for Worlds while giving teams an additional exciting event. This idea is going to kill the excitement and climax of the "World Championships". I really hope that FIRST reconsiders the structure of this or adds one more event for the Champions of the two events to compete against one another. I have been a huge supporter of FIRST and what they have done for students around the world. While the impact on the students will not be changed, the competitive environment will definitely be altered and greatly tarnished.

[gafftron]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

Who is going to be the first team to be a true World Champion in the 2 championship era by winning both?

FIRST actually dictates which Championship you go to and you're only allowed to go to one.

I feel like this is a step backwards for the program. More teams should be going into the district model with district championships so teams get the experience that way with the best of the best moving on to the singular world championship. Just my two cents...

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Really sad news. I get that we are trying to reach more students, but this seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

[smistthegreat]

"While FIRST appreciates teams’ enthusiasm for attending either or both Championship celebrations, our goal is to enable as many teams and students as possible to experience a FIRST Championship. Based on geographic location, teams from all four programs will be assigned to attend one of the events."

Does this mean that my team, being closer to Detroit, will no longer get an opportunity to compete with every single team that's geographically closer to Houston? I think this is a terrible idea. Part of the draw of CMP is it being a gathering of friends and competitors from around the country and the world.

These new events aren't world championships. They're glorified "super-regionals."

[BBray_T1296]

This poses some interesting questions. Will one championship event be "better" to attend than the other? If one of the main points is to reduce travel costs, it is an easy statement that any teams from Texas who qualify for Worlds will go to the Houston CMP, while anyone from Canada or FiM will probably find themselves in Detroit. I feel like this could produce an OPR discrepency. Perhaps this could be leveled by the divvying of teams such as MAR and West Coast teams whose costs may be similar between both events.

Also, will there be a "grand champion" matchup where the Houston champion and STL/Detroit champion alliances face off for an ultimate crown?

I feel like this division sets a precedent for future-proofing the whole competition organization. Sudden increase in teams in Europe? Put a CMP there. Number of teams on the West Coast quadruple? Put a CMP there. It is possible that this introduces another tier of competition where, like all the districts feed their district champs, those district champs feed poly-district champs, which ultimately feed another, higher WCMP level.

[Mackenzie W]

If they're going that far north, does this mean Toronto might actually get the Championships at some point? I really have no clue what to say about this, other than that this means IRI and similar offseason events will be determining actual world champions now.

[JVN]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

"Presenting your 2017 Half-World Champions" doesn't have quite the same ring to it...

"One of the important things about FIRST and maybe what separates us from other sports is that we're an inclusive organization we're about not about picking a winner at the expense of others but celebrating everybody's accomplishments and success."

[lynca]

I'm certain FIRST will be listening to teams and their ideas on how to define the new championship structure.

Keep the feedback constructive and let's help grow the program to new heights.

[smurfgirl]

In addition, by hosting Championships in multiple cities, we seek to reduce the travel distances and associated travel expenses for a significant number of our teams.

I don't see how hosting two Championships in the middle of the country reduces travel distances or costs for the huge population of teams along the two coasts.

I'm not sure I really understand the motivation behind this decision.

[JohnSchneider]

It says in the release that teams are region locked. How is geographically restricting teams fostering exchange of ideas between teams from different states or even countries.

Now when my students want to go study and look at an 1114 or 254 robot they may never get the chance? Ridiculous.

[lucas.alvarez96]

Our most prestigious honors, such as the FIRST Robotics Competition Chairman’s Award; FIRST Tech Challenge Inspire Award; FIRST LEGO League Champion’s Award, the Dean’s List Award and other top honors, will be replicated and celebrated at each event

So does that mean that two teams will be inducted yearly into the HoF? Will there also be 6 winners, and like others have said before, 2 "half-world champs"? Considering the expansion of FIRST and its exponential growth, evidenced by the creation of even more teams every year, it seems to be a good move, but are the awards and winners being picked fairly and correctly?

...maybe there'll be an Einstein regional...

[pwnageNick]

This is also almost guaranteed to conflict the VEX World Championship nearly every year from now on unless VEX bends over backwards to not conflict, which they already went out of their way to do this year with only one FIRST Championship event.

[JeffersonMartin]

This move makes absolutely no sense to me. Splitting the teams up into two events will, in my opinion, do the opposite of inspire people. And don't even get me started on crowning two world champions.

[Travis Hoffman]

"IRI - Where True Champions are Crowned"