Future First Championship News

[Siri]

Originally Posted by jman4747

Well it sure sounds like it. And to be clear I still prefer the expanded district system. This is nothing to quit over however and I think FRC is a bigger technical challenge. Again why haven't you done VRC/FTC exclusively prior to this? The reasons for choosing FRC are not lost in this development.

FRC doesn't come anywhere near a monopoly on technical difficulty (talk to Falcons about underwater robots...or, you know, watch the movie) or competitive experience (ever been to VEX?)

The reason I stick around as an FRC volunteer? I trust the program. Things like this...it's not even so much about the content, it's about the process. If you've been around long enough, you may remember the open letter for transparency for several years back signed by many if not most of the top players of the FRC community. People (and quite frankly, businesses), that put untold effort into the success of the program worldwide. You may remember the mass exodus to VEX when FIRST dropped IFI (FVC became FTC). This announcement, particularly as a gushing press release without addressing or even attempting to anticipate actual objections. This feels very much like IFI all over again.

Originally Posted by Kevin Kolodziej

The competition isn't even in the stadiums! The most impressive part of the Championship in its current form is getting to play in a huge stadium! Anyone who played on the pit fields in 2011 knows how much it sucked - now everyone gets that wonderfully uninspiring experience.

Bumping this because I hadn't even noticed this. Can people from the cities speak to these convention centers? Going back to 400 teams, is this going to be real "fields in the pits" feel again?

Originally Posted by AndrewPospeshil

[*]Speaking of vagueness, why would FIRST announce this plan with a seemingly small amount of information fleshed out? They've determined the broad scope of the event, but a lot of the finer details haven't been revealed/worked out. Now granted they might be looking for some community input before determining things like 2 Champion alliances, 2 WCAs, etc, but I feel like FIRST is pretty good at gauging what's good for the community without it's input (Aerial Assist, district model). I feel like they've revealed only the least appealing information - although that may be intentional, ripping off the metaphorical bandaid)

(emphasis mine) I agree with most of this, but the phrase "FIRST is pretty good at gauging what's good for the community without it's input" seems off. Particularly with the example of Districts, which is the exact opposite of FIRST working for community good without input. (Districts were a grassroots initiative in Michigan that FiM pushed to HQ. MAR picked it up, again grassroots, making MAR and pitching to HQ.)

Originally Posted by TechGirlOnFire

tl;dr:
*The 'solution' of adding super-regionals will extend the season, ultimately leading to student, mentor, and volunteer burnout.

TechFire, you're already in Districts. District Champs equals a Super Regional in the model discussed on this thread: it doesn't extend our (MAR's) season at all.