Future First Championship News

[Botsup]

Just called FIRST and was on hold a LONG time. Person I finally spoke to:

-Had never been to a single competition, let alone champs.
-Kept telling me this was great because it would be so much less expensive to get to champs for everyone (um...no).
-Had never heard of 254 or 1114, did not even know they were teams that I was referring to.
-Had no idea what VEX was.
-Sounded like they were frazzled from all the calls.

[scooty199]

This really is a bad way to get to the Districts -> Regional -> Worlds format.

Maybe I'm too much of a College Basketball fan, but I thought of this concept that I believed FIRST to be moving towards.

The Districts are like the conferences and what not.

The Super Regionals are the like the NCAA tournament regions. You have four of them.

A certain number of teams move on to what would be the deciding World Championship.

[MattRain]

Originally Posted by JohnFogarty

The location choices are lnteresting. not sure it's going to save my team any money. Both Houston and Detriot are out of the question in terms of driving distance from SC. I miss having the championship in my backyard.

Now you know how the west coast feels. We haven't had a good location yet. Houston is still a 17 hour drive from Phoenix.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Botsup

Just called FIRST and was on hold a LONG time. Person I finally spoke to:

-Had never been to a single competition, let alone champs.
-Kept telling me this was great because it would be so much less expensive to get to champs for everyone (um...no).
-Had never heard of 254 or 1114, did not even know they were teams that I was referring to.
-Had no idea what VEX was.
-Sounded like they were frazzled from all the calls.

Hilarious, yet sadly not surprising.

[Bob Steele]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

This might be a good point to start some constructive discussion.

I'm also a fan of the district->district CMP->super regional->CMP concept. The only true concern I have with it is the amount teams will most likely have to spend in just registration costs for 4 tiers of events assuming they go all the way. If any one of those tiers (or more if FIRST wants to be nice) were free for teams it could work. Perhaps district CMP? 5k/year for the entire district model sounds fair. Meanwhile less populated areas still in regionals would pay the same amount with one less tier, dropping DCMP and just having a single regional with winners moving on to the super regional.

This is a great point... particularly for Districts..... Another level of qualification for District teams after playing in 3 events? and paying as if you had been in 2 regionals... Why not have Super Regionals for non-District teams and use the District CMPs as the "Super Regionals" for the teams in Districts? This would mean that all teams would go through a set of qualifiers to get to CMP. Right now... it is $5000 to enter and $4000 to play at District CMP...just like attending 2 regionals.

For Super Regionals... if a team qualified at a regional to go to Super Reqional they could go for the same cost.... 2 regionals would cost more..of course.

[MikLast]

Originally Posted by Botsup

Just called FIRST and was on hold a LONG time. Person I finally spoke to:

-Had never been to a single competition, let alone champs.
-Kept telling me this was great because it would be so much less expensive to get to champs for everyone (um...no).
-Had never heard of 254 or 1114, did not even know they were teams that I was referring to.
-Had no idea what VEX was.
-Sounded like they were frazzled from all the calls.

Sounds perfect.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

You will only be able to attend one Championship and which one that will be will be geographically assigned.

I understand and read that.
One of the best things about FIRST is giving our students from a very tiny rural community, a chance to compete, collaborate and converse with the many great teams around the world.
Being assigned to 1 of the 2 events, would further limit our chances to do that, much the same way Districts have already prevented programs from competing at those events.

I feel very fortunate to have been able to compete at different areas across the US prior to these specific areas going to Districts.

[Connor Mulkey]

Is this the part where we elect Jared or Cory the FRC players union president, and then go into a lockout? The NFL, NBA, and MLB can do it. So if FIRST is truly a sport, why can't we?

[OAXACA]

I have a plan to show FIRST how upset we are: Let's just not go to champs this year. No one show up. You know what? No one just ever go again until we get this issue resolved!!

[cgmv123]

Originally Posted by Connor Mulkey

and then go into a lockout?

Employers (the leagues) lockout employees (the players). Employees go on strike.

[Navid Shafa]

Originally Posted by Connor Mulkey

Is this the part where we elect Jared or Cory the FRC players union president, and then go into a lockout? The NFL, NBA, and MLB can do it. So if FIRST is truly a sport, why can't we?

Nominations seconded.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by pwnageNick

I think that would probably come off a bit selfish.. to deny a team a wild card slot to champs so you can go to both..

I see your point.
But I was looking at it from the perspective that Champs would increase 2 fold?
600 to 1200 teams? That's about 1/2 of the current FIRST participation numbers.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

Employers (the leagues) lockout employees (the players). Employees go on strike.

We're not employees, we are customers. We all give FIRST a giant pile of money each year.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Navid Shafa

Nominations seconded.

All in favor, say "Aye".

[MikLast]

Originally Posted by Connor Mulkey

Is this the part where we elect Jared or Cory the FRC players union president, and then go into a lockout? The NFL, NBA, and MLB can do it. So if FIRST is truly a sport, why can't we?

ill be the only one on my team striking, the rest may not even know about this till next year...